Who would have thought that a creature that existed millions of years ago – the woolly mammoth – could possibly benefit human health so many years later.  A new study that has been published in ACS’ journal, Biochemistry, suggests that looking at the woolly mammoth’s blood could help them create brand new blood products for medical procedures which would involve needing to reduce a patient’s body temperature. 

The study was lead by Chien Ho after it was noted that woolly mammoth’s ancestors started out in warmer climates, but were then able to migrate to the much colder climates of Eurasia as long a 2 million years ago during the Pleistocene ice age.  Many different adaptations took place to allow these African and Asian elephants to live in that colder climate.  They grew a thick “woolly” fur and also had smaller ears to help with heat conservation. 

Scientists also suspect that the DNA of the elephants was able to change to allow them to adapt to the frigid temperatures of Eurasia.  A previous study carried out by Ho and his colleagues revealed that a blood protein, hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body, was different in the woolly mammoth than its close cousin, the Asian elephant.  There were mutations in the DNA of the woolly mammoth which helped the woolly mammoths withstand freezing temperatures.  The scientists then began analyzing the hemoglobin of the woolly mammoth.

As the woolly mammoth became extinct thousands of years ago, Ho and his team were able to replicate the hemoglobin protein in a laboratory by using fragmented DNA sequences from woolly mammoths that had died in Siberia any where from 25,000 to 43,000 years ago.  The hemoglobin was then compared to that in Asian elephants, as well as human beings.

The results showed that the woolly mammoth protein was far less affected by temperature changes than the protein in both Asian elephant and human blood.  The mammoth’s blood was still able to easily carry and unload oxygen to body tissues despite the freezing temperatures.  The researchers suspect that two mutations of the hemoglobin gene account for this remarkable ability of the blood.

This research could potentially lead to a brand new design for artificial blood products that could prevent the risk of hypothermia during surgery, such a brain and heart surgeries.  As it stands, during surgery doctors must keep a patient’s blood temperature up in order to prevent the risk of blood loss and post-operative infections.  If a patient’s blood temperature becomes too low during surgery, there are serious consequences that may result.