The real interesting thought here
is that a pig out diet of raw meat appears to specifically boost heart tissue
growth. I put it that way to show just
how contrary this is to our traditional thinking. It also may not apply well to us. However it certainly is an interesting new
direction for research.
I am loath to suggest what diet
steps are indicated at all because it is obviously early days. I no longer frown on eating a large rare
steak though if I am working on building up strength. From this it sounds like it may be a good
plan and those old boxing tales for boys may have actually had it right.
I suppose we now need to wait for
further studies following up on this lead.
Python Study May Have Implications for Human Heart Health
ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — A surprising new University of
Colorado Boulder study shows that huge amounts of fatty acids circulating in
the bloodstreams of feeding pythons promote healthy heart growth, results that
may have implications for treating human heart disease.
CU-Boulder Professor Leslie Leinwand and her research team found the
amount of triglycerides -- the main constituent of natural fats and oils -- in
the blood of Burmese pythons one day after eating increased by more than
fiftyfold. Despite the massive amount of fatty acids in the python bloodstream
there was no evidence of fat deposition in the heart, and the researchers also
saw an increase in the activity of a key enzyme known to protect the heart from
damage.
After identifying the chemical make-up of blood plasma in fed pythons,
the CU-Boulder researchers injected fasting pythons with either "fed
python" blood plasma or a reconstituted fatty acid mixture they developed
to mimic such plasma. In both cases, the pythons showed increased heart growth
and indicators of cardiac health. The team took the experiments a step further
by injecting mice with either fed python plasma or the fatty acid mixture, with
the same results.
"We found that a combination of fatty acids can induce
beneficial heart growth in living organisms," said CU-Boulder postdoctoral
researcher Cecilia Riquelme, first author on the Science paper. "Now we
are trying to understand the molecular mechanisms behind the process in hopes
that the results might lead to new therapies to improve heart disease
conditions in humans."
The paper is being published in the Oct. 28 issue of the journal
Science. In addition to Leinwand and Riquelme, the authors include CU
postdoctoral researcher Brooke Harrison, CU graduate student Jason Magida, CU
undergraduate Christopher Wall, Hiberna Corp. researcher Thomas Marr and University of Alabama Tuscaloosa Professor Stephen Secor
Previous studies have shown that the hearts of Burmese pythons can grow
in mass by 40 percent within 24 to 72 hours after a large meal, and that
metabolism immediately after swallowing prey can shoot up by fortyfold. As big
around as telephone poles, adult Burmese pythons can swallow prey as large as
deer, have been known to reach a length of 27 feet and are able to fast for up
to a year with few ill effects.
There are good and bad types of heart growth, said Leinwand, who is an
expert in genetic heart diseases including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the
leading cause of sudden death in young athletes. While cardiac diseases can
cause human heart muscle to thicken and decrease the size of heart chambers and
heart function because the organ is working harder to pump blood, heart
enlargement from exercise is beneficial.
"Well-conditioned athletes like Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps
and cyclist Lance Armstrong have huge hearts," said Leinwand, a professor
in the molecular, cellular and developmental biology department and chief
scientific officer of CU's Biofrontiers Institute. "But there are many
people who are unable to exercise because of existing heart disease, so it
would be nice to develop some kind of a treatment to promote the beneficial
growth of heart cells."
Riquelme said once the CU team confirmed that something in the blood
plasma of pythons was inducing positive cardiac growth, they began looking for
the right "signal" by analyzing proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and
peptides present in the fed plasma. The team used a technique known as gas
chromatography to analyze both fasted and fed python plasma blood, eventually
identifying a highly complex composition of circulating fatty acids with
distinct patterns of abundance over the course of the digestive process.
In the mouse experiments led by Harrison ,
the animals were hooked up to "mini-pumps" that delivered low doses
of the fatty acid mixture over a period of a week. Not only did the mouse
hearts show significant growth in the major part of the heart that pumps blood,
the heart muscle cell size increased, there was no increase in heart fibrosis
-- which makes the heart muscle more stiff and can be a sign of disease -- and
there were no alterations in the liver or in the skeletal muscles, he said.
"It was remarkable that the fatty acids identified in the
plasma-fed pythons could actually stimulate healthy heart growth in mice,"
said Harrison . The team also tested the fed
python plasma and the fatty acid mixture on cultured rat heart cells, with the
same positive results, Harrison said.
The CU-led team also identified the activation of signaling pathways in
the cells of fed python plasma, which serve as traffic lights of sorts, said
Leinwand. "We are trying to understand how to make those signals tell
individual heart cells whether they are going down a road that has pathological
consequences, like disease, or beneficial consequences, like exercise,"
she said.
The prey of Burmese pythons can be up to 100 percent of the
constricting snake's body mass, said Leinwand, who holds a Marsico Endowed
Chair of Excellence at CU-Boulder.
"When a python eats, something extraordinary happens. Its
metabolism increases by more than fortyfold and the size of its organs increase
significantly in mass by building new tissue, which is broken back down during
the digestion process."
The three key fatty acids in the fed python plasma turned out to be
myristic acid, palmitic acid and palmitoleic acid. The enzyme that showed
increased activity in the python hearts during feeding episodes, known as
superoxide dismutase, is a well-known "cardio-protective" enzyme in
many organisms, including humans, said Leinwand.
The new Science study grew out of a project Leinwand began in 2006 when
she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and awarded a
four-year, $1 million undergraduate education grant from the Chevy Chase,
Md.-based institute. As part of the award Leinwand initiated the Python Project,
an undergraduate laboratory research program designed to focus on the heart
biology of constricting snakes like pythons thought to have relevance to human
disease.
Undergraduates contributed substantially to the underpinnings of the
new python study both by their genetic studies and by caring for the lab
pythons, said Leinwand. While scientists know a great deal about the genomes of
standard lab animal models like fruit flies, worms and mice, relatively little
was known about pythons. "We have had to do a lot of difficult groundwork
using molecular genetics tools in order to undertake this research," said
Leinwand.
CU-Boulder already had a laboratory snake facility in place, which
contributed to the success of the project, she said.
"The fact that the python study involved faculty, postdoctoral
researchers, a graduate student and an undergraduate, Christopher Wall, shows
the project was a team effort," said Leinwand. "Chris is a good
example of how the University
of Colorado University
of California , San Diego
Hiberna Corp., a Boulder-based company developing drugs based on
natural models of extreme metabolic regulation, signed an exclusive agreement
with CU's Technology Transfer Office in 2008, licensing technology developed by
Leinwand based on the natural ability of pythons to dramatically increase their
heart size and metabolism.
Directed by Nobel laureate and CU Distinguished Professor Tom Cech, the
Biofrontiers Institute was formed to advance human health and welfare by
exploring critical areas of biology and translating new knowledge into
practical applications. The institute is educating a new generation of
interdisciplinary scientists to work together on solutions to complex
biomedical challenges and to expand Colorado
No comments:
Post a Comment