Protein synthesis (PS) has been considered essential to sustain mammalian life, yet was found to be virtually arrested for weeks in brain and other organs of the hibernating ground squirrel, Spermophilus tridecemlineatus. PS, in vivo, was below the limit of autoradiographic detection in brain sections and, in brain extracts, was determined to be 0.04% of the average rate from active squirrels. Further, it was reduced 3-fold in cell-free extracts from hibernating brain at 37°C, eliminating hypothermia as the only cause for protein synthesis inhibition (active, 0.47 ؎ 0.08 pmol͞mg protein per min; hibernator, 0.16 ؎ 0.05 pmol͞mg protein per min, P < 0.001). PS suppression involved blocks of initiation and elongation, and its onset coincided with the early transition phase into hibernation. An increased monosome peak with moderate ribosomal disaggregation in polysome profiles and the greatly increased phosphorylation of eIF2␣ are both consistent with an initiation block in hibernators. The elongation block was demonstrated by a 3-fold increase in ribosomal mean transit times in cell-free extracts from hibernators (active, 2.4 ؎ 0.7 min; hibernator, 7.1 ؎ 1.4 min, P < 0.001). No abnormalities of ribosomal function or mRNA levels were detected. These findings implicate suppression of PS as a component of the regulated shutdown of cellular function that permits hibernating ground squirrels to tolerate ''trickle'' blood f low and reduced substrate and oxygen availability. Further study of the factors that control these phenomena may lead to identification of the molecular mechanisms that regulate this state.
The breakdown of cellular homeostasis and progressive neuronal destruction in cerebral ischemia appears to be mediated by a complex network of causes that are intricately interrelated. We have investigated a physiological state existing normally in nature in which mammals appear to tolerate the ordinarily detrimental effects of ischemia with reduced oxygen availability and to resist activation of self-destructive processes, i.e., mammalian hibernation. Ground squirrels (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) were chronically implanted with arterial and venous catheters and telemetry devices for electroencephalography, electrocardiography, and monitoring of body temperature. The animals were placed in an environmental chamber at an ambient temperature of 5 degrees C. Entrance into hibernation was characterized by a drop in heart rate followed by a gradual decline in body temperature and an isoelectric electroencephalogram. Cold-adapted active animals that were not hibernating served as controls. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured in both groups with the autoradiographic [14C]iodoantipyrine method. Mean (+/- SD) mass-weighted CBF in the brain was 62 +/- 18 ml 100 g(-1) min (-1) (n = 4) in the control group but was reduced to ischemic levels, 7 +/- 4 ml 100 g(-1) min (-1) (n = 4), in the hibernating animals (p < 0.001) [corrected]. No neuropathological changes were found in similarly hibernating animals aroused from hibernation. Hibernation appears to be actively regulated, and hormonal factors may be involved. The identification and characterization of such factors and of the mechanisms used by hibernating species to increase ischemic tolerance and to blunt the destructive effects of ischemia may enable us to prevent or minimize the loss of homeostatic control during and after cerebral ischemia in other species.
Hibernation in mammals is associated with a regulated depression of global cellular functions accompanied by reductions of cerebral blood flow that would render the brain profoundly ischemic under normal conditions. Homeostatic control is preserved, however, and brain damage does not occur. We investigated the possibility that hibernation not only confers tolerance to profound hypothermia, but also to hypoxia and aglycemia independent of temperature. Hippocampal slices from ground squirrels Citellus tridecemlineatus in both the active and hibernating states and from rats were subjected to in vitro hypoxia and aglycemia at incubation temperatures of 36 degrees C, 20 degrees C, and 7 degrees C and evaluated histologically. A binary bioassay was used to determine the duration of hypoxia/aglycemia tolerated in each group. At all temperatures, slices from hibernating animals were most tolerant compared with both active squirrels and rats. Slices from active ground squirrels were more tolerant than rat at 20 degrees C and 7 degrees C but not at 36 degrees C indicating a species-specific difference that becomes manifest at lower temperatures. These results indicate that hibernation is associated not only with tolerance to profound hypothermia but also to deprivation of oxygen and glucose. Because tolerance was already demonstrable at the shortest duration of hibernation studied, rapid therapeutic induction of a similar state may be possible. Therefore, identification of the regulatory mechanisms underlying this tolerance may lead to novel neuroprotective strategies.
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