Scientists have created a vaccine that slows aging, at least in mice. Their findings were recently published in Nature Aging. As we age, the ability for the body to get rid of damaged cells declines, which can lead to inflammation and a host of diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, as well as atherosclerosis. The vaccine works by triggering the immune system to create antibodies against a specific protein associated with […]
October was a great month for physiology! The Midlands Society of Physiological Sciences also held their virtual annual meeting on October 23rd. Highlights from Oral Presentations: Lucas Wang, undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska – Omaha (in collaboration with Lie Gao, Bryan Hackfort, and Irving Zucker) presented research exploring how upregulating a pathway in skeletal muscle that protects from oxidative stress and inflammation prevented age-related declines in heart and […]
The Missouri Physiological Society held their virtual annual meeting on Saturday October 16th. Membership in the society includes high school, undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, scientists, and science policy administrators/advocates in the state of Missouri. Highlights from the Oral Presentations: The Keynote Address was given by Dr. John Hall, Arthur C. Guyton Professor and Chair of Physiology and Biophysics as well as Founding Director of the Mississippi Center for Obesity […]
With the Beijing 2022 Olympics quickly approaching, I thought it would be fun to showcase some extreme animals. Take the Arctic tern (above), for example. These birds hold the record for longest migration. Terns are born during the summer in the Arctic circle and travel all the way to the Antarctic circle every year to spend the summer – a distance of ~30,000 km, talk about a marathon! For comparison, […]
Granted the following topics are not comparative physiology research, I think they are certainly worth mentioning: Sayani Bhattacharjee, a graduate student at The University of Toledo, presented research on a novel way to overcome drug resistant prostate cancer, at least in cancer cells. A common treatment for prostate cancer is to block androgens. The problem with this treatment is that nearly all patients become resistant to the treatment. Fingers crossed […]
Mammalian red blood cells do not have a nucleus, which is different from birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish (see image above). Many textbooks report that the absence of a nucleus provides room for more hemoglobin within the cells, which is important to fuel the relatively high metabolic rates of mammals. Hemoglobin is an important oxygen-binding molecule that allows the red blood cells to transport oxygen to tissues throughout the body […]
Can you imagine what would happen to your body if you dove up to 1700 meters deep in the ocean for an hour and a half, or experienced months of food deprivation? In the case of deep diving, the high pressure causes the collapse of the lungs of terrestrial mammals (including humans!) and depletion of body oxygen stores, whereas long fasting periods compromise health and induce muscle wasting. Northern elephant […]
I attended a really great session this afternoon on the Evolutionary Physiology of Locomotor Behavior: Causes, Consequences, and Mechanisms. The session started with a talk by Dr. David Raichlin from the University of Southern California who spoke about locomotion from a human perspective. He described how locomotion is not only essential for the survival of species, but also provides benefits for the aging brain. It was fascinating to learn […]
The ability to regulate body temperature is critical for animals. This is especially true for small mammals as they have a larger surface area resulting in more heat loss to the environment than larger animals. Animals that stay active during the winter likewise have to spend more energy to stay warm. To do this well, they need to balance heat loss with heat generation through shivering as well as non-shivering […]
Giraffes are extreme. Given their long necks, their blood pressure is 2.5 times higher than ours, which ensures that oxygenated blood makes it all the way up to their head. Having high blood pressure, however, is simply a normal characteristic of being a giraffe. A new study published in Science Advances explored the giraffe genome to identify genes that might help protect the cardiovascular system of giraffes by comparing their […]
Life Lines by Dr. Dolittle 