Did you know that your brain is really greedy? It uses about 5.7 kilograms of ATP every day, which is an incredible amount of energy! To keep up with such demand, the brain depends on an adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients, such as glucose. When oxygen or nutrient delivery are limited, like during a heart attack, stroke or in low-oxygen environments, the brain is unable to produce enough ATP to keep up with demand, often with serious or even fatal consequences.
What if brains could survive periods of little (hypoxia) to no (anoxia) oxygen? Enter the American bullfrog. While bullfrogs and humans can’t live very long without oxygen under normal circumstances, bullfrogs have a remarkable tolerance of hypoxia and anoxia during and just after winter. To survive winter in a frozen pond devoid of oxygen, bullfrogs slow their metabolism down and hibernate. When they emerge from hibernation, their brain must resume function even though the water is still often low in oxygen. Remarkably, research has shown that their brainstem, which controls breathing, can function during this time for 3.5 hours without oxygen or for about 2 hours if glucose is also limited.
Understanding how the bullfrog brain functions with little to no oxygen as they emerge from hibernation could inspire new ways to treat brain injuries or disorders caused by a lack of oxygen in humans, including strokes or heart attacks.
Source:
L Amaral-Silva, J Santin. Neural processing without O2 and glucose delivery: Lessons from the pond to the clinic. Physiology. 39(6): 0, 2024. doi: 10.1152/physiol.00030.2023.
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Categories: Environment, Extreme Animals, Hibernation and Hypoxia, Illnesses and Injuries, Nature's Solutions
Tags: American Physiological Society, animals, breathing, Bullfrog, Exercise, health, heart attack, hibernation, hypoxia, medicine, mental-health, nutrition, physiology, science, stroke
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 
