Researchers studying portly hoar bear have learn a natural state of matter of diabetes that serve up a real biological purpose – and it ’s reversible . According to anew studypublished inCell Metabolism , the bears are obese in the fall , become temporarily diabetic during hibernation , and somehow they ’re “ cured ” by the time they wake up in the spring .
creature routinely make do with condition that would cause disease in mankind . In bears and masses alike , the hormone insulin aid carry sugar in the blood to cell around the body . Patients withtype 2 diabetesproduce insulin , but their cells do n’t react to it – called “ insulin resistivity . ” The pancreas reacts by producing more insulin , but over time the system intercept making enough when blood sugar levels impale . The confluence of diabetes and obesity is a world-wide epidemic .
Some scientist have turn over to natural uttermost biological science : Hibernating animate being become obese each year to live on longsighted period of food scarcity . Despite their expunge increase in body weight and fat in cookery , they do n’t suffer from metabolic disorders . “ I believe there is an animal out there that has the answer to any human ailment , ” Kevin Corbit of California - biotechAmgentells Nature .
So , Corbit and colleague studied grey bears ( Ursos arctos horribilis ) house in a dependency in Washington state . They monitor the bear in October ( pre - hibernation gluttony ) , January ( hibernation ) , and May ( post - hibernation awakening ) – collecting blood and tissue paper sampling , recording body system of weights , and measuring percentage body juicy .
They found that , unlike in humans , insulin and blood sugar floor in grey-haired stemma did not switch . These levels continue remarkably unremitting . Turns out , the cells that communicate with insulin can turn their power to reply to the sugar - regulating hormone on and off , like a dimmer .
When grizzly are the most obese , they ’re also the most “ insulin sensitive ” – or least diabetic . They become this direction by shutting down the activeness of a protein called PTEN in the autumn , but only in their fat cells . That way , the bears ' cell keep responding to insulin , and signals to store sugar , even as they tamp down on the pounds . Ursus arctos horribilis terminate up stack away all the fuel they ’ll need for winter in their fertile tissue – and not in their liver and muscle , which are common places for fat to accumulate in multitude and other animals with fleshiness .
This res publica of “ augment insulin sensitiveness while obese ” happen just before the insulin resistivity ( or temporary diabetes ) that they experience during hibernation – which keep enough sugar in their rip for them to endure . By outflow , they became sensitive to insulin again . you’re able to see the cycle in thisgraphical precis .
" This is in dividing line to the coarse whimsey that fleshiness leads to diabetes in human , " Corbit explains in anews release . “ Our termination clearly and convincingly impart to an emerge prototype where diabetes and obesity – in contrast to the prevailing notion that the two always go handwriting - in - hand – may subsist by nature on diametric ends of the metabolic spectrum . ”
If shutting off PTEN aid corpulent bear maintain insulin sensitivity , Corbit tells Science , turning off the tract in overweight citizenry could prevent or treat diabetes .
Images : shutterstock.com ( top ) , Kevin Corbit ( middle )
