Health surprise: Hibernating bears may help us beat blood clots, says new research

Hibernating bears can’t help us escape lengthy airplane flights or unforgiving winters — however they may help us stop blood clots.

The bears, throughout hibernation, stop blood clots in their very own our bodies by preserving a low stage of a key protein of their blood, in accordance with a new examine revealed in Science.

Now, the researchers hope their findings might be utilized to creating future drugs in people that may mimic the best way nature prevents blood clots in bears.

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The researchers in contrast blood samples from 13 wild brown bears through the winter whereas they have been hibernating with blood samples through the summer time when the bears have been extra lively.

They particularly checked out platelets — which help the blood kind clots — discovering that the hibernating bears’ blood samples had platelets that have been much less prone to clump collectively than the samples taken of the bears through the summer time.

The research workforce additionally discovered that when the platelets did clot, they did so extra slowly.

The examine discovered {that a} key distinction within the bears’ winter and summer time blood samples have been ranges of a protein known as warmth shock protein 47 — or HSP47 — in platelets.

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This protein is often present in cells that kind connective tissues like bone and cartilage, in addition to platelets, the place HSP47 attaches to a protein known as collagen that helps them stick collectively to kind a clot.

The examine discovered a key distinction within the bears’ winter and summer time blood samples.

The hibernating bears had roughly one-fiftieth of the quantity of HSP47 present in lively animals.

The research was finished by cardiologists on the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, who teamed up with a Scandinavian workforce and different researchers to check hibernating brown bears in Sweden, in accordance with Science. 

Blood consists of purple blood cells, white blood cells and platelets that float within the liquid portion of the blood generally known as plasma. When we bleed, this initiates the coagulation — or clotting cascade — that prompts proteins on platelets to clump to fill the outlet within the blood vessel, in order that we cease bleeding.  (iStock)

The researchers additionally carried out lab experiments with mice to verify that HSP47 was the explanation behind the hibernating bears’ lack of blood clots.

The mice that lacked the HSP47 protein had fewer clots and decrease ranges of irritation in comparison with animals who had HSP47. 

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In addition, researchers found that pigs that had just lately given beginning — animals which might be fairly motionless for as much as 28 days whereas feeding their piglets — additionally had decrease HSP47 ranges in contrast with lively pigs.  

The findings additionally utilized to individuals who have long-term immobility points.

Pigs that had just lately given beginning — animals that stay fairly motionless for as much as 28 days whereas feeding their piglets — additionally had decrease HSP47 ranges, in contrast with lively pigs, researchers discovered. (iStock)

People with spinal wire accidents additionally had low ranges of HSP47. In addition, 12 wholesome volunteers had decrease HSP47 ranges after 27 days of relative immobility in a bed-rest examine.

How the physique kinds clots

“When we cut ourselves, we bleed because blood vessels under the skin tear,” Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, chief of the division of hematology at Sylvester Cancer Center within the University of Miami in Miami, Florida, informed Fox News Digital. (He was not concerned within the research.)

“They then release chemicals that, in turn, activate proteins in the plasma,” added Sekeres, creator of the e-book “Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Public’s Trust.”

This course of can generally get activated inappropriately even when there is not any bleeding — inflicting “deep vein thrombosis.”

Blood consists of purple blood cells, white blood cells and platelets that float within the liquid portion of the blood generally known as plasma, in accordance with Cleveland Clinic.

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When we bleed, this initiates the coagulation — or clotting cascade — that prompts proteins on platelets to clump to fill the outlet within the blood vessel, so we cease bleeding, Sekeres defined.

Deep vein thrombosis might be harmful

This course of can nonetheless generally get activated inappropriately even when there is not any bleeding, inflicting “deep vein thrombosis,” or DVT.

Blood consists of purple blood cells, white blood cells and platelets that float within the liquid portion of the blood generally known as plasma, in accordance with Cleveland Clinic. When we bleed, this initiates the coagulation — or clotting cascade — that prompts proteins on platelets to clump to fill the outlet within the blood vessel in order that we cease bleeding, one physician defined.  (iStock)

Common signs of DVT embody swelling, ache, tenderness and redness of the pores and skin within the decrease leg, thigh, pelvis and generally even the arm, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Some 50% of individuals with DVT is not going to have any signs, the company added.

People can usually kind within the massive veins within the legs, “which can become life-threatening if they travel to vital organs like the lungs — termed [a pulmonary] embolism,” added Sekeres.

A “prolonged lack of activity” — corresponding to throughout lengthy airplane flights — may cause the blood to pool and make individuals extra in danger for DVTs.

A pulmonary embolism, which is probably the most severe complication of DVT, happens when part of the clot breaks off and travels by means of the bloodstream to the lungs, blocking very important blood move, per the CDC.

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Sekeres famous that “prolonged lack of activity” — corresponding to throughout lengthy airplane flights — may cause the blood to pool and make individuals extra in danger for DVTs.

Other danger elements embody sure drugs, corresponding to hormone therapies, surgical procedure or “inherited defects in the clotting cascade that encourage it to ‘turn on,’” he added.

A business airliner cabin filled with passengers. Health specialists advise that folks stand up and transfer round on occasion on lengthy flights. Other good recommendation consists of stretching the ft and calves to help blood move.  (iStock)

The CDC advises that folks see a physician instantly if they’ve any signs of a DVT.

‘Potential target’ for DVT remedy

Experts may help develop potential drugs that may goal HSP47 from attaching to proteins or immune cells that provoke clots, in accordance with a report on the examine’s key findings.

More research is required to raised perceive how the human physique particularly regulates HSP47. 

“We prevent the development of DVTs with medications that block segments of the coagulation cascade, or that interfere with proteins on platelets, preventing the clot from forming,” Sekeres added.

“The protein HSP47 could be a potential target for one of these medications.”

Most animals use the identical proteins to not solely make clots however to stop blood loss. 

Yet the sequence of occasions resulting in forming a clot may range amongst species, in accordance with Science News, an impartial journal that studies on the most recent science.

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More research is required to raised perceive how the human physique particularly regulates HSP47 — and the way being motionlessness over time motivates the physique to make much less HSP47, Science News added.