Well-fed, hibernating bears give clues to possible cure of human diabetes, says study

A study by scientists at Washington State University Bear Center, in the United States, shows how bears are able to eat huge amounts of food and then hibernate and lie around for months without suffering the consequences of the almost sedentary lifestyle.

According to the study, there are eight key proteins that have been attributed to keeping the bears diabetes-free for months. Notably, these proteins also have a human counterpart which the experts theorise could lead to a better understanding of diabetes in humans as well as a potential cure.

While bears are not completely sedentary and spend some of their time in hibernation being awake and moving around, they do not eat. “If you saw this in humans, it would be very medically concerning,” said the researcher at the university as well as who worked on this study, Blair Perry.

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Reportedly, in humans, obesity and inactivity are major factors that contribute to Type 2 diabetes, which is also the far most common form of the disease. Furthermore, this type of diabetes occurs when the body can no longer use the hormone insulin properly, which is responsible for regulating the amount of glucose in the blood.

Insulin helps move the sugars from the food to the body cells for energy, however, when people suffer from diabetes these sugars get accumulated in the blood, said the report. Therefore, the cells over time lose their sensitivity to insulin and can’t take up sugar from the bloodstream, this is a precursor to this type of diabetes and is called insulin resistance.

The study elucidates how bears also develop insulin resistance while they hibernate but their blood sugar levels as well as insulin levels remain stable and do not turn into diabetes. The samples were collected from some of the bears housed at the Washington State University Bear Center and the researchers for this study analysed the blood serum and fat cell samples.

The research indicates that some samples were collected during the active season and others during hibernation. During the hibernation period for two weeks, researchers also fed the bears honey water which disrupted their daily routine. Subsequently, the scientists combined different cell cultures and serum samples collected during the active and hibernation period to study the altered gene activity in the cells.

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The gene activity in the cells was also noticed when they put the serum from the disrupted-hibernation period onto cells taken from regularly hibernating bears and indicated how the cells showed similar gene activity to that of cells from the active season. This in turn allowed the researchers to narrow down the eight key proteins that appeared between insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity.

In an interview, earlier this year, Perry said how the study published on September 21, lays the foundation for future studies. “The more we understand about how this is working in bear the better footing we'll have for translating this to human studies,” said Perry.

He added these findings could also lead to new medications for treating or preventing diabetes in humans. Speaking about the broader implications of the study the researcher also indicated that during hibernation despite very little movement by the bears they also do not suffer from the negative effects of muscle or bone mass (another health consequence that sedentary humans face).

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