Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: flea + antifreeze + could  Related to the article below (Last Update: 12/1/2008)

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Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: antifreeze + fleas + life  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/7/2008)

The 'antifreeze' flea that could save your life

A tiny insect called the snow flea could help save the lives of thousands of people waiting for organ transplant operations.

Scientists have identified an 'antifreeze' chemical that allows the bug to survive in some of the coldest places on Earth.

And they are working on ways to add the chemical to transplant organs so they can be stored at lower temperatures, giving them a much longer shelf life.

Currently, organs cannot be stored below zero because ice crystals form and damage the tissue.

This means their 'survival time' outside the human body is very short, ranging from two to four hours for a lung and up to 48 hours for a kidney.

But researchers believe that adding the flea antifreeze to the solution in which the organs are stored will make it possible to drop the temperature to -6C without the tissue freezing, giving them much longer to find potential recipients.

Chris Rudge, medical director of UK Transplant, yesterday welcomed the breakthrough, saying: "If we were able to store organs for prolonged periods, it could have a very beneficial effect."

More than 6,000 people in the UK are waiting for a transplant. And last year 460 died because they did not receive a new organ quickly enough - despite 12million people being registered as willing to donate their organs after death.

Fossil records show that snow fleas have been around for at least 400million years. They are found all over the planet, from Patagonian glaciers to the Antarctic, Europe and North America, often carpeting the ground in dense clusters. Despite its name, the animal is not a real flea but a primitive, beetle-like species.

Dr Laurie Graham, of Queen's University, Ontario, is leading the research project into the antifreeze found in their bodies.

He said similar antifreeze proteins are found in other species. But the snow flea's chemical is unique because it breaks down when warmed, meaning it could be quickly cleared from the body of a person receiving a transplant, thus reducing the possibility of harmful antibodies forming.

The flea antifreeze is unlikely to be available for medical use for at least five years because more tests are needed and a way must be found to mass-produce it.

The snow flea is a type of creature named a 'springtail' - so-called because it has two spring-loaded 'tails' looped under its middle.

When released, they spring apart and hit the snow, sending the creature flying into the air.

The trick allows the snow flea to leap more than 100 times its body length of an eighth of an inch, although it cannot control the direction of travel.