To survive wintry months in the American Northeast , sturdy amphibious vehicle , Pisces , and bloodsucking ticking have antifreeze protein that help prevent tissue damage . And now , research worker show that this frostbite protective cover could be channelize to mammals — specifically mice , for newcomer . Thefindingswere write inPLOS ONEthis calendar week .
For poikilotherm that ca n’t regularise their national body temperature , antifreeze protein prevent cold damage by restrain the increase of ice crystals from water molecules in the body . Ice needles impose a peck of damage to tissue paper . old work have identified an antifreeze glycoprotein called IAFGP in blacklegged ticks ( Ixodes scapularis ) , and these proteins even serve their cold protective part in experiment with fruit fly .
This metre , aYale team led by Erol Fikrigwanted to see if the antifreeze glycoprotein — when expressed by genetically engineered mice — could protect mammal cells and living mammals from cold shock and frostbite , severally . After stick in the tick antifreeze protein into mouse , the team stack away mouse tegument samples at 4 degrees Celsius for four days . The team also dipped the tails of these transgenic mouse who could produce antifreeze glycoproteins into a liquid bathtub of negative 22 arcdegree Celsius for seven days .
Turns out , “ if you put an antifreeze protein into strong - blooded animate being , it does elicit antifreeze activity and it can protect the animal from frostbite , ” Fikrig say in anews release . The pelt sampling showed reduced cell death and even increase in number after cold storage compared with ascendancy cells . And the alive transgenic mice showed increase temperature underground : 60 per centum of the cover mice showed no seeable sign of frostbite , compared to only 11 percent of ascendency mouse . Their tail also indicate fewer signs of a mortified inflammation uniform with frostbite damage .
If tick - derived antifreeze would work well in other mammals , these might aid extend the amount of clock time donate organ could pass in frigid storage before the real transplant surgical procedure . But it might be a while . " Our study does n’t address the question of how we ’d save the protein,“Fikrig tells the Washington Post . " We ’re using transgenic mouse , and we ’re patently not going to put this gene into people . " Maybe one 24-hour interval this antifreeze could aid people with moth-eaten sensitivity due to autoimmune disorders likescleroderma .
