Hibernation is an energy-saving strategy which is widely adopted by heterothermic mammals to survive in the harsh environment. The greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) can hibernate for a long period in the hibernation season. However, the global gene expression changes between hibernation and non-hibernation season in the greater horseshoe bat remain largely unknown. We herein rep...

Mammalian hibernators experience physiological extremes, e.g. ischemia, muscle disuse and hypothermia, which are lethal to non-hibernators, implying the existence of underlying mechanisms that allow hibernators to withstand these physiological extremes. Increased cell proliferation is suggested to be such a strategy, but its molecular basis remains unknown. In this study, we characterized the e...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate many physiological processes through post-transcriptional control of gene expression and are a major part of the small noncoding RNAs (snRNA). As hibernators can survive at low body temperatures (Tb) for many months without suffering tissue damage, understanding the mechanisms that enable them to do so are of medical interest. Because the brain integrates peripheral ...

Mammalian hibernation presents a unique opportunity to study naturally occurring neuroprotection. Hibernating ground squirrels undergo rapid and extreme physiological changes in body temperature, oxygen consumption, and heart rate without suffering neurological damage from ischemia and reperfusion injury. Different brain regions show markedly different activity during the torpor/arousal cycle: ...

To evaluate how the activity of a well-established neurotransmitter pathway is modulated by a behavioral state, 3H-spiperone binding sites and dopamine (DA) and DA metabolite concentrations were measured in the striata of ground squirrels in 5 phases of the hibernation cycle. Whereas levels of striatal DA and its deaminated metabolite DOPAC did not change significantly, the concentrations of th...

713 eat seeds from cones and are too large to use the subnivian space; for these animals, winter can be a long season without foraging opportunities, and they have therefore evolved the ability to pass winter by while in a torpid state of lethargy. A highly regulated sequence of physiological events beginning months in advance of winter coordinates entrance into the suspended state of animation...

Hibernation-induced changes in the concentrations of glycolytic intermediates, creatine phosphate, and adenylates were monitored in brain and skeletal muscle of the meadow jumping mouse, Zapus hudsonius, after both short (24 h) and long (5 -7 d) periods of hibernation. Levels of hexose phosphates were greatly reduced in both organs after 24 h of hibernation, suggesting strong suppression of car...

The purpose of this study was to characterize changes in gene expression in the brain of a seasonal hibernator, the golden-mantled ground squirrel, Spermophilus lateralis, during the hibernation season. Very little information is available on molecular changes that correlate with hibernation state, and what has been done focused mainly on seasonal changes in peripheral tissues. We produced over...

TSVETKOV, Ts., Ts. TAKEVA and A. SOLAK, 2006. To the problem of experimental hibernation I. About the role of endogenous hibernation trigger. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 1-5 Experimented 24 white mice (Mus Musculus), divided into 2 groups of twelve. The fist 12 animals have been injected intraperitoneal (i.p.) with blood plasma (in different doses) from ground squirrels by the time of deep hibernatio...