from the gotta-keep-cool-now-gotta-take-care dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
In 1999, 29-year-old Anna Bågenholm survived a body temperature of 13.7 degrees Celsius (56.7 degrees Fahrenheit), after a skiing accident sent her under ice in a river. Her heart did not beat for several hours. The story was later relayed by the BBC.
Now, a group of researchers in Oslo have come closer to explaining what happens in cells that experience deep cooling.
Their work is relevant for both hibernation and accidental hypothermia. It has ramifications for treating trauma patients in hospitals, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and, in the future, might help humans travel in space.
[...] "We started looking at them in our favorite model organism, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans," he says.
[...] They saw that if they cool the C. elegans in a particular way, they will survive for a very long time without affecting the total lifespan.
[...] "We started looking at what happens in this organism and, while doing genetics on this model, we realized that there are certain manipulations we can do that make the survival of these animals in the cold even more effective."
By following one particular manipulation, they realized that increasing the levels of a particular protein calledferritin[sic], a protein that stores iron, strongly protected from cold.
[...] Ciosk explains they also tested whether this may be relevant for the mammalian cells. They chose neurons, nerve cells in the brain and nervous system, which are very sensitive cells.
[...] "We were able to show that we can use a very simple model system and identify cold-protective pathways that are conserved in mammalian cells. This could open new ways to treat hypothermia and potentially neurodegenerative conditions," Ciosk says.
[...] Humans do not hibernate, but a hibernation-like sleep is suggested to facilitate long-distance space travel some time in the future.
An application that is much nearer in time is cooling of patients in hospitals.
[...] "So, if you find how hibernators protect their neurons in the cold you may also find pathways that are relevant for patients," he explains.
Journal Reference:
Tina Pekec, Jarosław Lewandowski, Alicja A. Komur et al. Ferritin-mediated iron detoxification promotes hypothermia survival in Caenorhabditis elegans and murine neurons [open]. Nat Commun 13, 4883 (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32500-z
(Score: 4, Interesting) by krishnoid on Monday October 17 2022, @07:32PM (1 child)
But the person in this tangentially-related article about checklists [newyorker.com] was about a girl stuck under the surface for a half hour.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday October 18 2022, @08:58AM
That article is great, thanks for sharing.
Doing stuff is hard.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 17 2022, @08:05PM
Selective reading tells me Norwegian girls have worms. Pass! Or am I to read this as Norwegian girls likes the worm ... yeah they do!