Research News
Not particularly cute but interesting for research: The African naked mole rat. Photo: MDC/Petra Dahl
The Secret of the Naked Mole Rat
Heterocephalus glaber - this is the scientific name of one of the most extraordinary creatures living on this planet. Deep down beneath the East African semi-deserts, the African naked mole rat lives in large colonies headed by one single fertile queen. Their life takes place in perpetual darkness, with very little oxygen and a lot of carbon dioxide, which turns into acid in their body tissue. Their large teeth, with which they dig through airless tunnels, are reminiscent of excavator shovels. This wrinkly, seemingly hairless and blind animal is a member of the mammalian family, however, with some rather atypical characteristics. The naked mole rat is insensitive to certain kinds of pain, it is immune to cancer and, in contrast to its close relative the mouse, can live up to 30 years in the best of health.
These extraordinary characteristics now are subject to investigation by Prof. Dr Gary R. Lewin from the MDC. Already some years ago, he and other researchers in the USA jointly demonstrated that acid, normally causing painful chemical burns, poses no harm to the naked mole rat. This is unique in the vertebrate world. Now, Lewin and his team have found the reason why this should be so: Naked mole rats have an altered ion channel within their pain receptors, which is switched off by acid and renders these animals immune to this kind of pain. Even capsaicin, the active component of chili peppers normally causing a burning painful sensation on the skin, cannot affect these unusual animals. The researchers assume that in the course of evolution the extreme conditions these animals live in has made them less sensitive. The genome of this species was decoded only recently. The insights this can provide could be used also by humans, for example, in order to find out why some persons are more susceptible to contracting certain kinds of cancer than others. Heterocephalus glaber may be a very strange and not particularly cute creature. Yet for medical research it is worth its weight in gold.
