The Frozen Frog

Here comes another one of those urban legends, but this one has a different ending - perhaps a very happy one, too.

Every so often, I receive a picture (see below) that purports to be a frozen Alaskan Tree Frog, that has the ability to freeze in the winter, lose heartbeat, breathing and circulation for months on end, and then revive completely in the spring thaw.

Wow!  That's amazing!  Only problem is, the above picture is not of an Alaskan Tree Frog (there is no such animal) nor is it even an Alaskan Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica), which does exist and does all those miraculous heart-stopping-starting things.  The picture is probably a garden ornament with frost on it, not a live (or dead) frog at all.

What is amazing about the Alaskan Wood Frog is that it has been studied by scientists and biologists to determine what causes this wonderful reaction to freezing temperatures.  What they found is that the wood frog has an unusually high amount of cyroprotectants in its body that prevent the cells and tissue from losing moisture as they freeze.  These are composed of blood sugars and urea, and they lower the freezing temperature to prevent loss of vital fluids, or freeze drying. This enables the frog to recover as though nothing at all happened once the 'melt' occurs.

What if scientists could produce artificial cyroprotectants that could be injected into the donated organs of living or deceased people?  An organ must be implanted within hours of harvesting to be usable now, but with the addition of cyroprotectants it could be frozen and kept in an organ bank for weeks or months while a matching patient could be found to receive it.  People needing organ transplants would have a better chance of getting the heart, liver, kidney or lungs they so desperately need to survive.

It isn't yet a reality, but the research is already being conducted to produce the cyroprotectants similar to those found in the little Alaskan Wood Frog, and we might soon have another modern miracle of science that will prolong thousands of lives.

Okay, now you can say it . . . Wow! That's amazing!