The winter survive thirteen stripes in their sleep. You drive down your bodily functions for around six months - to leave your underground building in the spring. As they remain strong in the long time, researchers reported in the specialist magazine "Science". According to this, the Art Ictidomy's Tridecemlineatus owes its survival hard -working intestinal microbes.
In many mammals, prolonged inactivity and hunger cause the body to lose strength. Those who do not move or eat for a long time lose muscle mass. This produces ammonium, which in turn becomes urea. In high concentrations, however, this substance is toxic, which is why it is usually excreted in the urine. The result: The body loses nitrogen, which it actually urgently needs. It is all the more impressive that hibernators like the thirteen-striped squirrels awaken remarkably strongly from months of rigidity. How does that work?
Ureolytic intestinal microbes make it possible. They incorporate the urea nitrogen into metabolic products, the team around the animal physiologist Matthew Regan writes in his current study, and the urea that is produced during protein reduction is transported from the blood into the intestine and excreted with the urine.
According to Regan's group, the recycling of urea nitrogen is greatest after prolonged fasting in late winter. "These results reveal a functional role for the gut microbiome during hibernation and suggest mechanisms by which nitrogen recycling of urea contributes to protein balance," the researchers write.
The results of Regan and his colleagues would complement previous research on the microbial function of hibernating mammals, comment on two independent researchers in an article accompanying the study. "Together, these studies underline the importance of microbiota for nutritional and metabolic adjustments in mammals."
The findings could also benefit people, they write: muscle wasting is widespread in people who have age-related sarcopenia, protein deficiency or have moved too little for a long time due to serious diseases. "Targeted interventions in urea recycling could be a potential therapy for the treatment of such diseases," the accompanying article states. However, as usual, further investigations are necessary.
