Name: Meet the Arctic Ground Squirrel
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Find out why scientists are studying this cozy Alaskan critter.

Meet the arctic ground squirrel. This mammal can chill its body down to the freezing point, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, during hibernation and then wake up fine in the springtime. Find out why scientists are studying this cozy Alaskan critter and how they could help to improve our understanding of healthcare for humans.This video was produced in collaboration with NOVA and is made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Meet the arctic ground squirrel. This mammal can chill its body down to the freezing point, 32 degrees Fahrenheit, during hibernation and then wake up fine in the springtime. Find out why scientists are studying this cozy Alaskan critter and how they could help to improve our understanding of healthcare for humans.

Find out why scientists are studying this cozy Alaskan critter

Meet the Arctic Ground Squirrel

Find out why scientists are studying this cozy Alaskan critter.

Nature

This little squirrel just came out of the freezer, but it's not dead. And scientists like Sarah Rice want to know why. Sarah Rice: There's no cardiac arrest. There's no stroke. They're obese, but there's no ill effects. There's no bone loss. Narrator: This is an arctic ground squirrel. And during hibernation, it can chill its body down to the freezing point, 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It's the only mammal that we know can get that cold. Sarah Rice: And they wake up and they're just fine in the springtime. Narrator: Here at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, researchers are trying to understand the biological mechanisms that allow squirrels to withstand such extreme conditions and bounce back completely healthy. They found that when the squirrels hibernate, they cycle in and out of a deep sleep called torpor. Sarah Rice: They're in torpor for weeks at a time, where they're super, super cold. The heart beats maybe five times a minute. They breathe once a minute and they're just inactive. Narrator: Arctic ground Squirrels hibernate because harsh winters limit their ability to find food for much of the year. But every few weeks they slowly warm their bodies to make glucose, proteins and immune cells, basically everything their bodies need to do to keep living. So how do they do it? If researchers here can figure it out, it might help them develop drugs that could mimic hibernation in humans. Biologist Kelly Drew says hibernation might help patients with critical brain injuries, like someone who's just had a stroke. Kelly Drew: The optimal therapy for somebody who has a brain injury is to either stop fever or to cool the body. And the best way to do that is through the same mechanism that the ground squirrels do to turn down the thermostat. Narrator: Drew's small team of scientists is working on creating a drug to chemically turn down the body's thermostat like squirrels do in hibernation. They're focused on certain receptors in the brain called adenosine-A1. Her hope is that a drug that stimulates A1 receptors in human brains could be part of an effective treatment for stroke or other brain injuries, or even promote brain health as we age. Kelly Drew: The other thing that cooling and rewarming does to the brain is it also creates these regeneration of synapses and maybe even neurons. And so for things like mental health, I think cooling and rewarming could be remarkable because it promotes plasticity. Same with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Narrator: So far, Drew says, the drug has shown promising results in rats and pigs. The drug testing process is long and rigorous. If it works, it could be five to 10 years before it has final FDA approval for human use. Drew says NASA has even shown an interest in the potential to put astronauts in a hibernation-like state to aid space travel. The seven month trip to Mars would be a lot more pleasant in a hibernation bubble.

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Meet the Arctic Ground Squirrel

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