Amoroso Vince G, Zhao Aishi, Vargas Isabel, Park Thomas J
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 24;13(5):819. doi: 10.3390/ani13050819.
Naked mole-rats () are very unusual among subterranean mammals in that they live in large colonies and are extremely social, spending large amounts of time gathered together in underground nests more than a meter below the surface. Many respiring individuals resting in deep, poorly ventilated nests deplete the oxygen supply and increase the concentration of carbon dioxide. Consistent with living in that atmosphere, naked mole-rats tolerate levels of low oxygen and high carbon dioxide that are deadly to most surface-dwelling mammals. Naked mole-rats appear to have evolved a number of remarkable adaptations to be able to thrive in this harsh atmosphere. In order to successfully survive low oxygen atmospheres, they conserve energy utilization by reducing the physiological activity of all organs, manifest by reduced heart rate and brain activity. Amazingly, they resort to the anaerobic metabolism of fructose rather than glucose as a fuel to generate energy when challenged by anoxia. Similarly, high carbon dioxide atmospheres normally cause tissue acidosis, while naked mole-rats have a genetic mutation preventing both acid-induced pain and pulmonary edema. Together, these putative adaptations and the tolerances they provide make the naked mole-rat an important model for studying a host of biomedical challenges.
裸鼹鼠在地下哺乳动物中非常特别，因为它们生活在大群体中且极具社会性，会花大量时间聚集在地表以下一米多深的地下巢穴中。许多呼吸着的个体在深邃且通风不良的巢穴中休息，会耗尽氧气供应并增加二氧化碳浓度。与生活在那种环境中一致的是，裸鼹鼠能耐受对大多数地表哺乳动物致命的低氧和高二氧化碳水平。裸鼹鼠似乎已经进化出许多显著的适应性特征，以便能在这种恶劣环境中茁壮成长。为了在低氧环境中成功存活，它们通过降低所有器官的生理活动来保存能量利用，表现为心率和大脑活动降低。令人惊奇的是，当受到缺氧挑战时，它们会采用果糖而非葡萄糖的无氧代谢作为燃料来产生能量。同样，高二氧化碳环境通常会导致组织酸中毒，而裸鼹鼠有一种基因突变，可防止酸诱导的疼痛和肺水肿。这些假定的适应性特征以及它们所提供的耐受性共同使裸鼹鼠成为研究一系列生物医学难题的重要模型。
