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Biochemical and molecular mechanisms of hibernation; Survival ‎without food and water in the cold

Document Type : Review Article

Author

Department of Basic Sciences, ‎Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, ‎University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran‎

10.30473/eab.2024.71943.1960

Abstract

A review on hibernation was done by extensive search in main databases, using appropriate keywords and reading the newer and more cited articles from more reliable journals. This review investigated biochemical and molecular strategies of hibernating mammals to combat cold and lack of food and water. Growth and survival in times of resource scarcity require behavioral, physiological, cellular, and molecular adaptation in a relatively short time. Hibernation is a set of physiological strategies that allow animals to live in cold and lack food and water. Mammalian hibernation is a physiological state during which animals repeatedly experience periods of torpor and Interbout arousal. Hibernation varies in different kinds of animals. The inactive periods of heterotherms are more like deep sleep than hibernation. Voluntary hibernators enter a dormant period only when food resources are low, the weather is cold, and the season is changing. Obligate hibernations enter the inactive period seasonally, regardless of food availability, ambient temperature, and photoperiod. Obligate hibernating mammals can slow their metabolism, lower their body temperature, and fall into a torpor state. The energy supply is mainly made from fats stored pre-hibernation in this stage. This is associated with the upregulation of enzymes responsible for carbohydrate metabolism and the downregulation of enzymes responsible for fatty acid oxidation during hibernation. Non-stimulation of smell, taste, and oral-pharyngeal and digestive nerves and hormones such as leptin and insulin play a role in the neural suppression of feeding behavior from the hypothalamus. As water leaves the muscles, the plasma osmolality of hibernating animals decreases. Reducing blood osmolality acts as a thirst-suppression message to the brain. Hibernations are tolerant to cold both behaviorally and at the cellular level because the sensory neurons in these animals are less sensitive to cold. Also, hibernators have less cold-sensitive neurons in their hypothalamus. Hibernation is not simply a reduction in body temperature and vital parameters, but an active process that is seasonally regulated at the cellular and molecular levels. This seasonal adaptation is controlled by hormonal, neural, genetic, and epigenetic regulations. As different kinds of animals can hibernate, comparative studies are necessary to discover the central events of hibernation. What we have learned from the mechanism of animals hibernation can be used to develop methods to improve human health. Hibernation strategies can help reduce muscle and bone disuse atrophy, increase limb preservation time, fight obesity, and prevent reperfusion injury following myocardial infarction and stroke. Many questions about hibernation remain to be addressed in future research.

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References
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Experimental animal Biology
Volume 13, Issue 1 - Serial Number 49
No.1
September 2024
Pages 41-51
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