14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at the Rutgers University, led by biology professor Daniel Shain, are currently studying ice worms in hopes of improving organ transplantation performances. Another practical application of their work is figuring out a way of keeping energy levels in humans up in cold weather.
All cells in all organisms function on a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is the main energy currency of living things. In cold weather, complex organisms, from multicellular lifeforms upwards, produce less ATP, making them less able to function properly.
This effect does not exist in single-cellular lifeforms, such as bacteria and fungi, which are able to survive and thrive in environments prohibited to more complex organisms. In some multicellular organisms, such as ice worms, ATP amounts remain high due to the fact that the thermostat controlling its production is broken.
In humans and other higher lifeforms, ATP production is controlled by a thermostat of sorts, which limits the amount of energy available for consumption over any timeframes – days, hours, etc. In ice worms, this thermostat is broken, so the organisms have more ATP, and are therefore better able to handle the cold.
This is what enables ice worms to live inside coastal glaciers, at temperatures near the freezing point of water. However, these organisms cannot live in inland glaciers, which are much colder. “They are paradoxically very sensitive to freezing,” Shain explains.
“They’re able to live right at the freezing point thanks to their elevated ATP levels,” the researcher adds. He hopes that the new studies being conducted at Rutgers will provide his team with a wealth of data on how to promote organ survivability at low temperature, particularly during the delicate transport stage of a transplant.
Increasing the ATP levels while the organ is on ice could significantly boost the time frame wherein organ transplantation can occur. Today, organs need to be inserted into a new host no later than 24 hours after being harvested from donors.
“What needs to happen is we need to get rid of a particular enzyme, but that’s counterintuitive Trying to break that thermostat in human cells is experimentally difficult. We now feel like we partially understand the mechanism for making this change and we’ve only just scratched the surface of applying it to human cells. We’ve learned it’s not so easy, but it’s not impossible, either,” Shain says.