Investigation of mechanisms inducing spontaneous hypothermia in a mammalian hibernator

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19321
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 44:Biology at cellular to organismal levels, and related fields
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Yamaguchi Yoshifumi 北海道大学, 低温科学研究所, 教授 (10447443)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 低体温

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Hibernation is the adaptive strategy that enables long-term survival in extreme environments such as cold, dryness, and starvation by suppressing metabolism systemically. During the hibernation period, the Syrian hamster, a small mammal that hibernates, repeats torpor-arousal cycles, during with a body temperature dramatically changes from 10 or less to 37 degrees celsius. However, mechanisms controlling the torpor-arousal cycle is still largely unknown. To approach this question, we identified DTIG (Deep-torpor-induced genes), a group of genes whose expression levels in tissues differ greatly between torpor and arousal. Furthermore, we succeeded in producing genetically modified animals for one of these genes.

Free Research Field

分子冬眠学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本成果で同定された、冬眠に伴う低体温の際に大幅に発現量が変動する遺伝子の役割を個体や細胞において検証していくことで、哺乳類の冬眠の際に大幅な体温低下を引き起こす機構や、そうした体温低下への組織の適応生存機構が明らかになると予想される。さらにそこで得られる知見は低体温療法や移植医療の際の臓器保存等への応用が期待される。