Scientists find how glass frogs turn transparent, with hint at better understanding of human blood clotting

The transparent frogs with rare ability to turn on and off their ability to become literally transparent, indicates the reasons behind blood clotting in humans, researchers said on Thursday in the journal Science.

The world knows about glass frog since decades. But nobody could ascertain the reason behind its nearly transparent body.

What does the latest research say?

The research, published in the journals Science says that a glass frog is able to pool blood in its body without being negatively affected by clots.

The finding thus advances the medical understanding of blood clotting, a common serious condition among human beings.

Why Glass Frog is transparent?

The glass frog spends its days sleeping on bright green leaves in the Tropics.

In order to escape the attention of predators, the creature turns itself up to 61% per cent transparent, disguising itself on the leaf.

How does Glass Frog become transparent?

Researchers found that the creature's transparency comes from its ability to shine different wavelengths of light at different stages of activity. They discovered that the creatures pool blood into their liver.

"They somehow pack most of the red blood cells in the liver, so they're removed from the blood plasma. They're still circulating plasma but they do it somehow without triggering a massive clot," Jesse Delia, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in New York, US, was quoted as saying by BBC.

Up to 89 per cent of the animal's blood cells become packed together, almost doubling the size of the liver, and allowing the frog to become transparent.

At night, when the creature wants to become active again to hunt or mate, it releases the red blood cells back into circulation and the liver shrinks back again.

This ability to selectively pool and clot blood is the creature's "superpower", Dellia says further, adding that it could enable a better understanding of the blood clotting in humans generally.

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