Canadian scientists have found out what helps gophers to hibernate. The corresponding article was published in Science.

When animals hibernate, they stop eating and survive until spring on fat stores. Such a long period of sleep would lead to loss of muscle mass, but this is not observed in hibernating animals.

Biologists from the University of Montreal, led by Matthew Regan, figured out how ground squirrels manage not to lose muscle mass, while confirming the long-established theory of nitrogen recycling from urea ((NH2)2CO).

According to this theory, hibernating animals recycle nitrogen from urea, which is normally excreted in the urine. This nitrogen in the body of ground squirrels is used to build new proteins.

To find out, scientists introduced urea with a radioisotope label into the blood of gophers, that is, there was a lot of carbon-13 among carbon atoms, and nitrogen-15 among nitrogen atoms. This made it possible to track the distribution of these chemical elements throughout the body.

It turned out that bacteria in the intestine break down urea, and nitrogen from it enters back into the bloodstream.

Scientists hope that this discovery will help to adapt a similar mechanism for astronauts. In space, people suffer from muscle loss and are forced to constantly exercise on simulators to minimize this effect, but simulators take up working volume and add mass to the ship. Thus, if biologists can add a similar mechanism to the human metabolism, it will simplify space travel.

bbabo.Net