- A research says that the Polar bears have a healthy heart which has a genetic input to avoid heart diseases in humans.
- More than half of the body of Polar bears consists of fat and have large fat deposits under their skin and their blood cholesterol levels are high enough to cause cardiovascular disease in humans.
- “The life of a polar bear revolves around fat. Nursing cubs rely on milk that can be up to 30 % fat and adults eat primarily blubber of marine mammal prey,” explained Eline Lorenzen of University of California Berkeley.
- Polar bears get metabolic water which is a by-product to breakdown of fat as they do not have access to fresh water, to understand this research on 79 polar bears from Greenland and 10 brown bears from different locations around the globe.
- They discovered that mutations in genes involved in cardiovascular function allowed polar bears to rapidly evolve the ability to consume a fatty diet without developing high rates of heart disease.
- A gene APOB, is known to play a role in moving cholesterol from the bloodstream into cells, thus reducing the risk of heart disease.
- Read at: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/polar-bears-may-hold-key-to-healthy-heart/article5995038.ece