Gas Used to Put Mice in Type of Hibernation
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Mice forced to breathe hydrogen sulfide -- best known for its rotten egg smell -- go into a kind of suspended animation, U.S. researchers said Thursday. The finding may help save human lives.
Although hydrogen sulfide gas is toxic in high doses, it may activate some of the mechanisms that cause some animals to go into hibernation, the researchers wrote in this week’s issue of the journal Science. Finding a safe way to do this in humans could lead to new ways to treat cancer and prevent injury or death from blood loss, said the team at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
