Naked Mole Rats are Resistant to Ischemia, Such as Occurs Following a Heart Attack

On the one hand, naked mole-rats are most likely long-lived because they live underground, and thus suffer much lower rates of predation than other similarly sized mammals. Lower rates of extrinsic mortality appear to be a necessary prerequisite for the evolution of a longer species life span. On the other hand, living in a low-oxygen environment appears to have spurred the evolution of broad range of adaptations to that environment that incidentally happen to extend species longevity. Today's open access paper covers one aspect of those adaptations, a resistance to ischemia that reduces the harms resulting from the loss of blood flow to important tissues that takes place during events such as a heart attack. Interestingly, the researchers note differences in tolerance to hypoxia between naked mole-rats and similar species that correlate with a greater exposure to the low-oxygen underground environment. One can imagine interactions over evolutionary time between the characteristics of predation, instinct and willingness to remain underground, tolerance to hypoxia, and life span. Does all this discovery have relevance to human medicine? That remains an open question. Certainly there is considerable enthusiasm for understanding exactly how naked mole-rats are near immune to cancer, and building therapies based upon that understanding. It remains to be seen as to whether this is a practical goal, however. Naked mole-rats have distinctive cardiometabolic and genetic...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs