Before you wonder, how even hibernation in mice maters, let it be clarified- it creates hope for hibernation in humans! Yes, as exciting as it sounds, this theory can lead to unprecedented breakthroughs in human history. Anyway, the current research conducted at the University of Tsukuba and Genshiro Sunagawa at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research which was directed by Takeshi Sakurai has revealed that activating a explicit kind of cell, named dubbed Q neurons, in the brains of mice can lead them to a state similar to hibernation for several days. A handful of sci-fi movies have featured the idea of hibernation in astronauts so as to cross the vast spaces. This idea was definitely fascinating; however, its legitimacy and practicality was always questioned.
As far the mice theory of hibernation is concerned, Takeshi Sakurai explains, “the mice exhibited distinctive qualities that met the criteria for hibernation,” notes Sakurai. “In particular, the body temperature set-point lowered from about 96.8°F [36°C] to about 81°F [27°C], and the body functioned normally to maintain a lower body temperature around 22°C, even when the surrounding ambient temperature was dramatically reduced.” The mice also showed all the symptoms of reduced metabolism which are quite common during the process of hibernation, including oxygen consumption, reduced heart rate, and respiration.
Hibernation curbs down the amount of oxygen and food and you and prevent serious side effects from low gravity, such as muscle wasting in the zero G state. This state of unconsciousness can lessen the psychological challenges too, in space. Now this has suddenly raised a few questions such as what if humans too could hibernate in the upcoming time? And also, why could only some animals do hibernate while others don’t? Is it possible to hibernate even if all animals never do so in nature? Researchers at the University of Tsukuba in Japan opened the answer to these questions by discovering certain cells in the mouse brain that, when activated, can cause conditions like hibernation.
Being able to send mice into a similar stage of hibernation for a number of days just by artificially stimulating Q neurons was fairly shocking. “Even more surprising is that we were able to induce a similar hypometabolic state in rats, a species that neither hibernates nor has daily torpor”, says first author Tohru Takahashi.
