Nervous circuit controlling hibernation Discovered in mouse June 11 18:21
A group such as the University of Tsukuba announced that a neural circuit that may control hibernation performed by animals such as bears was discovered for the first time in experiments using mice. By stimulating this neural circuit, the mice can be put into a state of hibernation, and the group says that this is the result of the start of research that artificially causes hibernation.
Hibernation is performed by some animals, such as bears, in winter. In winter, body temperature and metabolism drop, and activity ceases, and activity resumes in spring.
Many animals, such as humans and mice, do not hibernate, and little is known about the mechanism by which they are regulated.
Professor Takeshi Sakurai and others at the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine at the University of Tsukuba and a group at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) said that when a drug stimulates a specific neural circuit in the part of the brain called the hypothalamus, the body temperature of the mouse rises to 10 degrees. It was found that the temperature dropped to about 24 degrees and that metabolisms such as oxygen consumption also decreased significantly. This condition lasted for several days, and the research group says it was the first to discover a neural circuit that could control hibernation.
It is also possible that many mammals, including humans, could do this because they were able to hibernate in the same way in rats, which are fellow mice and are larger than mice.
Professor Sakurai says, "This is the result of research that artificially causes hibernation, such as by temporarily hibernating to treat a heavy injury and saving lives."