Seasonal and regional differences in gene expression in the brain of a hibernating mammal.

ABSTRACT: Mammalian hibernation presents a unique opportunity to study naturally occurring neuroprotection. Hibernating ground squirrels undergo rapid and extreme physiological changes in body temperature, oxygen consumption, and heart rate without suffering neurological damage from ischemia and reperfusion injury. Different brain regions show markedly different activity during the torpor/arousal cycle: the cerebral cortex shows activity only during the periodic returns to normothermia, while the hypothalamus is active over the entire temperature range. Therefore, region-specific neuroprotective strategies must exist to permit this compartmentalized spectrum of activity. In this study, we use the Illumina HiSeq platform to compare the transcriptomes of these two brain regions at four collection poin

SUBMITTER: Schwartz C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3603966 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature