Lipid changes in blood serum and tissues of the Egyptian Cobra “Naja haje haje” during the hibernation cycle

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Abstract

  • 1.

    Total lipids, free fatty acids, triglycerides, phospholipids and total cholesterol in blood serum, liver, brain, cardiac and skeletal muscles of Naja haje haje were determined during the different phases of the hibernation cycle.

  • 2.

    A sharp decrease in the level of total lipids of blood serum and all tissues occurred during hibernation. Upon arousal, lipogenesis is commonly restored.

  • 3.

    Elevated concentrations of serum free fatty acids predominated in pre-hibernation and hibernation periods, while the tissues recorded highly significant declines during hibernation.

  • 4.

    Occurrence of marked decreases in triglycerides contents of serum and tissues except the cardiac muscles in the hibernation and arousal phases.

  • 5.

    Sharp increases in the phospholipid contents of blood and the selected tissues were recorded during hibernation. The level declined in both liver and cardiac muscles in arousing animals.

  • 6.

    Total cholesterol level was lowered in blood during hibernation. The cardiac muscles showed a highly significant decrease while liver, brain and skeletal muscles showed elevations in the same phase.

Introduction

Animal adaptation in different habitats has attracted the interest of many investigators, from both the morphological and physiological aspects (Schmidt Nielsen and Dawson, 1964; Huey and Stevenson, 1979; Bennett, 1980; Bartholomew, 1982; Crawford et al., 1983; Hertz et al., 1983; Huey and Kingslover, 1989; Hertz et al., 1993; Ward and Pinshow, 1995; O’Connor, 1999; Witz, 2001; Carey et al., 2003 and Nelson et al., 2003).

Hibernation is a widely explored natural phenomenon involving response to cold (Musacchia and Deavers, 1979) and representing a major feature of the annual cycle of reptiles that allows them to cope with prolonged periods of suboptimal temperatures. Each annual cycle includes entry into, maintenance of, and arousal from hibernation (Wang, 1985).

Hibernation has been considered as a prominent aspect of the most conspicuous seasonality of the annual cycle recorded in many reptiles. The mechanisms driving this seasonal pattern are both exogenous and endogenous, and might interact to induce regulation and timing of physiological activities to achieve a state culminating into hibernation or reproduction (Licht, 1972).

To understand and interpret the physiological adjustments, which accompany the hibernation cycle, a researcher should be aware of modification, cessation, adjustment and the regulation of different activities at the different phases of the hibernation cycle. In fact, the entry phase of pre-hibernation “in the fall”, hibernation and arousal from hibernation could be considered as phases with different priorities and demands for several physiological and biochemical activities. In this context the regulation of energy metabolism and processes involved are to a great extent related to the characteristics of each phase of the hibernation cycle.

Hibernation is a state of winter lethargy in which body temperature and metabolism are reduced (Gregory, 1982) so that energy can be conserved in an extreme environment (Dutton and Peter Taylor, 2003)

There is contradiction in the literature concerned with the study of energy metabolism during hibernation. What are the sources of energy during the different phases of the hibernation cycle? How are these processes regulated? These major questions have been studied in hibernating mammals but with comparatively little work being conducted on hibernating reptiles. This stimulated my ambition to study these questions in a snake that hibernates.

The scope of the present work was to follow up an earlier investigation (El-Deib, 1990). The study is restricted and focuses on the metabolic energy profile, especially lipid concentrations in blood, liver, brain, cardiac muscles and skeletal muscles of the Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje haje) during the different phases of the hibernation cycle to explore the demands and the modifications related to each phase, in an attempt to elucidate the endogenous rhythm and to develop an integrated approach to the physiology of hibernation in reptiles.

Section snippets

Animals

The Egyptian Cobra (Naja haje haje, Stein and Helmy, 1994), a common member of the family Elapidae was used in this investigation. It is a very dangerous snake in view of its aggressive nature and its potent venom which it produces in large quantities, so, it is obvious that the author is in trouble as there is a difficulty in capturing and maintaining the experimental animals. Naja haje haje inhabits agricultural fields of the Nile Valley and Delta or vegetative areas in the Western

Results and discussion

The most striking physical factors affecting animal life in the desert are scarcity of food, water and the wide temperature fluctuations. At low temperatures, the strategy of metabolism in tissues of hibernators to provide adequate stores of available chemical energy might be considered as a concept for cold resistance.

The relation between carbohydrates, proteins and free amino acids is that whenever dietary carbohydrate intake is low, gluconeogenesis may become a biochemical process essential

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