Title- Snake blood boosts mouse heart
Author- Stephen Ornes
Do you know what happens to a mouse’s heart when you add snake poison to it? It expands. Becomes much larger and healthier. When a mouse receives the blood of a python the heart begins to grow. Scientists found out that it grows 10% bigger and heavier in only one week. “The larger hearts looked healthy, as though the mice had been exercising more, the scientists said.” A python doesn’t at very often. However when it does it eats the animal whole and digests it as a whole. To help break down the food and deliver nutrients to the body, a python’s heart and other organs grow bigger for two or three days after its meal. This reaction doesn’t happen in mice, because they eat small meals and snacks constantly. Blood, in humans and in pythons, contains a mixture of chemical compounds and substances. Lei wand and her team, with the scientists from the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, wanted to know which of those compounds caused the heart cells to grow. After many experiments, they identified the three fatty acids responsible. These acids are called myristic, palmitic and palmitoleic; show up in humans and snakes, as well as in other animals. Lei wand hopes that part of the research might lead to treating/curing human hearts. A heart is made of cardiac muscle, and like any muscle it grows bigger and stronger with exercise. However, a big heart can also be a sign of poor health: Hearts grow larger because of high blood pressure or heart attacks. Lei wand told Science News that knowing whether python blood could help humans “will take a very long time.”
Wow! I never liked snakes.
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