Woolly mammoth's secrets for shrugging off cold points toward new artificial blood for humans

American Chemical Society ^ | September 14, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

The blood from woolly mammoths—those extinct elephant-like creatures that roamed the Earth in pre-historic times—is helping scientists develop new blood products for modern medical procedures that involve reducing patients' body temperature. The report appears in ACS' journal Biochemistry.

Chien Ho and colleagues note that woolly mammoth ancestors initially evolved in warm climates, where African and Asian elephants live now, but migrated to the cold regions of Eurasia 1.2 million – 2.0 million years ago in the Pleistocene ice age. They adapted to their new environment by growing thick, "woolly" fur and smaller ears, which helped conserve heat, and possibly by changing their DNA. In previous research, Ho and colleagues discovered that a blood protein (hemoglobin) that carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body in the woolly mammoth has mutations in its DNA that make it different from that of its cousin, the Asian elephant. The scientists turned to the mutations that helped woolly mammoths survive freezing temperatures, and carefully analyzed hemoglobin from the ancient animal.

They didn't have a woolly mammoth blood sample, so they made the hemoglobin protein in the laboratory by using fragmented DNA sequences from three mammoths that died in Siberia between 25,000 and 43,000 years ago. Compared to hemoglobin from Asian elephants and humans, the woolly mammoth protein was much less sensitive to temperature changes, which means it can still easily unload oxygen to tissues that need it in the cold, whereas the other hemoglobins can't. This is likely due to at least two of the mutations in the woolly mammoth hemoglobin gene. These insights could lead to the design of new artificial blood products for use in hypothermia induced during heart and brain surgeries.

[decimon]

Anthropogenic globin warming ping.

[BobinIL]

I thought they were going to start cloneing these with the DNA from the frozen carcases in Siberia?

[DManA]

They adapted to their new environment by growing thick, "woolly" fur and smaller ears, which helped conserve heat, and possibly by changing their DNA.

What an odd sentence. Can an animal change its ear size without there being a mutation in its DNA?

[glorgau]

Can an animal change its ear size without there being a mutation in its DNA?

Ask Mike Tyson or Evander Holyfield.

[pallis]

Sounds like a creative grant application to me.

[Cowgirl]

Here in the interior of Alaska we find woolly mammoth trunks quite often. They are usually not buried that deep.
The story is that a woolly mammoth was seen in the l800s.
This story was given to me by my husband who was born in Alaska. There weren’t any details and he wasn’t pulling my leg. (He doesn’t even understand sarcasm that well.)

[decimon]

This story was given to me by my husband who was born in Alaska. There weren’t any details and he wasn’t pulling my leg. (He doesn’t even understand sarcasm that well.)

Did he know Sarah Palin? ;-)

[Cowgirl]

No, she lived in Wasilla and he lived in Fairbanks - about 350 miles apart.

[OneWingedShark]

>>They adapted to their new environment by growing thick, “woolly” fur and smaller ears, which helped conserve heat, and possibly by changing their DNA.

This just in: WOOLY MAMMOTH HAD GENETIC ENGINEERS.

[decimon]

>>They adapted to their new environment by growing thick, “woolly” fur and smaller ears, which helped conserve heat, and possibly by changing their DNA.

This just in: WOOLY MAMMOTH HAD GENETIC ENGINEERS.

No, that's not it. Their mothers told them to be sure to change their DNA in case they have an accident.

[kidd]

They didn't have a woolly mammoth blood sample, so they made the hemoglobin protein in the laboratory by using fragmented DNA sequences from three mammoths that died in Siberia between 25,000 and 43,000 years ago.

Didn't we learn anything from the movie Jurrasic Park"?

Sheesh.

[OneWingedShark]

LOL — That’s good.

[pallis]

I used to work at a gold mine at Nome, and when I would man the sluice box, I kept an eye on things that looked like ivory. I would have loved to get a big mammoth tusk.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[ForGod'sSake]

For Real??? I’m gonna be the first in line for some government largesse to try to discover how sub tropical plants these behemoths grazed on were adapted to survive the cold also. My thesis: Megafuana couldn’t survive without megaflora, or at least great green gobs of miniflora. I’ll be rich!!!

[texanred]

TUVM for the ping on this. The mind simply boggles. Or mine does. I’m an artist and not a scientist. Perhaps this is more mundane or expe Ted in the scientific community.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!