Scientists Successfully Induce Hibernation in Squirrels

Posted on September 22, 2011

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks say they have successfully induced hibernation in animals. Squirrels were used in the study. The researchers say the research could also hold promise for human survival. They also say how hibernation works is still largely unknown.

A hibernating animal has a reduced heart rate and blood flow similar to a person in cardiac arrest, but the hibernator does not suffer brain damage. Damage in humans following a stroke or heart could be greatly reduced if a drug could be created that induces hibernation.

Like all animals, Arctic ground squirrels produce a molecule called adenosine that slows nerve cell activity. The researchers say they used a substance to stimulate adenosine receptors in the squirrels' brains to induce hibernation. They also used a substance similar to caffeine to arouse the hibernating squirrels.

Kelly Drew, senior author and UAF professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the Institute of Arctic Biology, says, "We devised an experiment in which non-hibernating arctic ground squirrels were given a substance that stimulated adenosine receptors in their brains. We expected the substance to induce hibernation. We also gave a substance similar to caffeine to arouse hibernating ground squirrels."

The researchers were always successful in inducing hibernation in the squirrels during mid-hibernation season, but less successful during the start of the hibernation season. They were not successful at all in inducing squirrel hibernation during the summer. Torpor is a condition where hibernating animals severely reduce their metabolic rate. During torpor oxygen consumption can fall to as low as one percent of resting metabolic rate and core body temperature to near or below freezing temperatures.

The researchers are going to try to induce hibernation in rats next. The research was published in the July 26 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

ANIMALS