Dr Michelle Dickenson: nanotechnologist on the part bears played in potentially preventing excess blood clots - The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

This week, we are talking bears and blood clots! 

Remaining immobile for long periods of time can put people at risk of dangerous blood clots moving through the body to vital organs like the heart and lungs. Many of us will know the increased risk of deep vein thrombosis from sitting for on long haul flights. 

One thing that has puzzled scientists is why immobility can increase the risk of clots in humans, yet hibernating bears that don’t move for months don’t suffer from the same clotting issues. 

To look into this further researchers took blood samples from 13 brown bears in both the winter and the summer to see if there was any difference.  

Their research was just published this month in the journal Science.

They found that platelets from blood samples taken from bears during hibernation were less likely to clump together than samples taken in the summer. The major difference found in the summer and winter blood was the level of a protein called Heat Shock protein 47 (HSP47). 

HSP47 helps platelets to stick together to form a blood clot which is helpful when the blood is responding to a cut and wants to stop the bleeding. 

The study found that the bears had 50 times more HSP47 in their blood in the summer meaning their blood is much less likely to form clots in the summer. 

To confirm that HSP47 was behind the bears’ lack of blood clots, the team then genetically modified mice to lack the protein. These mice had fewer clots and lower levels of inflammation regular mice. 

Knowing what they were looking for, the researchers then looked at other animals and found that pigs which had recently given birth and are immobile for 28 days while they feed their piglets also had lower levels of HSP47. 

Moving to humans, the researchers took 10 healthy volunteers and had them spend a month participating in voluntary bed rest. After 27 days of immobility, they found that their HSP47 levels went down. The same was found in patients with largely sedentary lifestyles such as those with spinal cord injuries.    

With all of this new information about the levels and power of HSP47, the researchers hope that these findings could help lead to drugs based on HSP47 that could help reduce the risk of excess blood clots and deep vein thrombosis. 

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