Winter is coming. Some animals successfully cope with the hostility of this season by hibernating. But how do hibernators survive the procoagulant state of months of immobility at very low body temperatures, with strongly decreased blood flow and increased blood viscosity? Changing the coagulation system seems crucial for preventing thromboembolic complications.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/23328940.2014.967595 | DOI Listing |
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Identification of hypothermia-inducing neurons in the preoptic area and activation of them by isoflurane anesthesia and central injection of adenosine.
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Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, Sakuragaoka 8-35-1, 890-8544, Kagoshima, Japan. Electronic address:
Hibernation and torpor are not passive responses caused by external temperature drops and fasting but are active brain functions that lower body temperature. A population of neurons in the preoptic area was recently identified as such active torpor-regulating neurons. We hypothesized that the other hypothermia-inducing maneuvers would also activate these neurons.
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J Vet Med Sci
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Laboratory of Veterinary Physiology, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Gifu University.
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- Hibernating animals can significantly lower their body temperature without damaging their organs, potentially due to active hypometabolism.
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Torpor is a state used by several mammals to survive harsh winters and avoid predation, characterized by a drastic reduction in metabolic rate followed by a decrease in body temperature, heart rate, and many physiological variables. During torpor, all organs and systems must adapt to the new low-energy expenditure conditions to preserve physiological homeostasis. These adaptations may be exploited in a translational perspective in several fields.
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Department of Neurological Surgery, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA; Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Science, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy. Electronic address:
To maintain core body temperature in mammals, CNS thermoregulatory networks respond to cold exposure by increasing brown adipose tissue and shivering thermogenesis. However, in hibernation or torpor, this canonical thermoregulatory response is replaced by a new, emerging paradigm, thermoregulatory inversion (TI), an alternative homeostatic state in which cold exposure inhibits thermogenesis and warm exposure stimulates thermogenesis. Here, we demonstrate that in the non-torpid rat, either exclusion of the canonical thermoregulatory integrator in the preoptic hypothalamus or inhibition of neurons in the ventromedial periventricular area (VMPeA) induces the TI state through an alternative thermoregulatory pathway.
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Bioessays
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Division of Multicellular Circuit Dynamics, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan.
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- * In cold conditions with limited food, some of these animals enter a state called torpor, where they lower their body temperature and metabolic activity to save energy.
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