PI: Kriya Dunlap, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, College of Natural Science and Mathematics (CNSM), UAF
Key Personnel: Sarah Rice, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, with the UAF College of Natural Science Department of Biology and Wildlife, and the Institute of Arctic Biology
Muscle atrophy is a major contributor to reduced quality of life and enhances the risk of comorbidities for people recovering from critical illness or those who are bedbound. In contrast to humans, hibernating animals, such as Arctic ground squirrels and black bears, demonstrate remarkable resistance to muscle atrophy despite prolonged periods of inactivity and fasting. The resilience of hibernating animals may be attributed to an upregulated expression of genes involved in protein biosynthesis and ribosome biogenesis (Fedorov et al, May 2024). Dunlap and Rice aim to measure protein synthesis rates in hibernating Arctic ground squirrels and summer active animals using deuterium oxide (D2O) labeling, which is recognized as the “gold standard” for measuring these rates in whole tissue protein and cellular compartments (such as mitochondria, ribosomes, and myofibrils) under physiologically relevant time-periods. The long-term goal is to identify novel molecular mechanisms driving muscle conservation in hibernating animals for translation to human medicine.
