Researchers took samples from the liver, fat and muscle of six captive grizzly bears at three times during the year. In the lab, a team of researchers analysed the DNA to understand the changes that occur in the cells over the course of the year.
Most surprising to Heiko Jansen, the study's lead author, was that the bears' fat contained a large number of genes that change their level of expression over the course of the year."It's in the thousands," he said. In contrast, when dwarf lemurs in Madagascar hibernate, only a few hundred genes in their fat tissues change their level of expression seasonally.
Other animals hibernate, too, like mountain pygmy possums in Australia, thirteen-lined ground squirrels in North American grasslands, and various species of bat. Their activity has long been of interest to researchers, who are eager to learn how a state of suspended animation might be applied to human health.
The physiology of hibernation might also be applicable to organ transplants. A waiting kidney or liver can be preserved in cold solutions for 24 hours, but after that it can't be used; a heart or a lung is only viable for four to six hours.
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