A sort of blood “magic trick” performed by a species of glassfrog may be useful in anticoagulant research for humans. Jesse Delia, PhD, a biologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, discovered an interesting behavior in glassfrogs when they sleep.
Glassfrogs, as the name suggests, have translucent skin, allowing the naked eye to see their entire circulatory system, hearts, veins, and all. After studying their behaviors, Dr. Delia became interested in photographing the frogs, brought several back to the lab, and placed them in a petri dish. However, when he left the frogs unattended and came back to them sleeping, their blood appeared to be gone.
After collaborating with Carlos Taboada, PhD, a biologist at Duke University, and doing further research, the two reported in Science that when glassfrogs sleep, they store most of their red blood cells (RBCs) in the liver. The hidden RBCs alongside their highly reflective white organs allow the frogs to become almost completely transparent. This makes the frogs less vulnerable to predators while they sleep, as they can blend into their surroundings.
When glassfrogs wake up, their RBCs are released back into their circulatory system, making their blood visible again.
About 90% of glassfrogs’ RBCs are stored in the liver while they sleep. Typically, this would increase the likelihood of clotting disorders. Going forward, if researchers can discover just how the frogs avoid blood clots in these conditions, they could potentially use that information to develop new anticoagulants for humans with clotting disorders.
Source: NPR, December 26, 2022.
