A frog that turns mostly translucent when it sleeps holds the key to understanding humans. Blood clotting.
Although the glass frog has long been recognized by science, how it became transparent was a mystery.
Now, a study published in the journal Science science have found that it can store blood in its body without suffering the consequences of clotting. The research could help doctors better understand blood clotting, a deadly disorder.
In the tropics, the glass frog, about the size of a marshmallow, spends its days sleeping on lush vegetation.
This animal camouflages itself on leaves and increases its transparency up to 61% to avoid being noticed by predators.
“If you turn these frogs upside down, you can actually see their heart beat. You can see through the skin and see the muscles, most of the body cavity is really transparent,” said Jesse Delia. , researcher at the Museum of Natural History. In New York, America said BBC News.
Now, research by Delia and Carlos Taboda at Duke University in the US has revealed how glass frogs perform these incredibly strange tasks.
The scientists measured the animals’ opacity by shining different wavelengths of light through them while they were awake and asleep. Creature blood pools in their livers, they discovered.
“They somehow package the red blood cells in the liver, so they’re removed from the blood plasma. They’re still circulating plasma…but they’re bigger,” Delia explained. do so without triggering scale coagulation,” Delia explained.
Up to 89 percent of the animal’s blood cells can clump together, making the frog translucent. The frog allows the red blood cells to recirculate and the liver to shrink when it wants to be active again at night to hunt or find a mate.
The frog can clot blood when necessary, such as when injured, according to Taboda.
According to him, the creature’s “superpower” is the ability to selectively collect and clot blood, which could pave the way for a more comprehensive understanding of blood clotting.
The majority of animals experience blood clots, which can be fatal and cause events such as heart attacks in humans. However, the researchers emphasize that it may be years before this knowledge can be applied to human treatment.