I mentioned that there is more than one investigation going on down here with our team. Science is a never ending quest - delving into one question almost always leads to more questions...One of the things that Kristin and Lisa hope to do in the future is study how red blooded and 'white-blooded' (fish without hemoglobin) fishes might differ in their ability to defend themselves against Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) What in the world is ROS you might ask. And I'm glad you did ask - let's take a look...
I was so inspired by my journal that I had Diane, one of our excellent cooks, fix me up a bowl of blueberries.
As you know, you are made up of trillions of cells. All cells naturally produce ROS (reactive oxygen species). There are some instances that these are beneficial, but too much of a build up of these can be very damaging to the cell. ROS has been implicated in some diseases - cardiovascular diseases, arteriolosclerosis, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, even aging. It is hypothesized that aging may be a result of the accumulative effects of our cells being bombarded with these ROS.
OMG! How can I get rid of this nasty ROS build up?! (Isn't it amazing how I can read your mind?) This is where antioxidants come into play. I'm sure you have all heard of these before. We hear about them in health news a lot lately. An antioxidant's role is to get rid of the ROS, to keep them under control. Your cells are busy places. All that metabolizing, cellular respiration, mitosis or meiosis, osmosis, active transport...the list goes on. Well in addition to all of that and more, there is a search and destroy mission going on. Those antioxidants are seeking out the ROS to eradicate them. It's a battle zone in there. Hmmm, this might make a great video game.
Anyway, you are much more familiar with antioxidants than you might realize. Some of the smaller, lower molecular weight antioxidants are vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione.
Not only is the food delicious at Palmer Station, there are plenty of healthy options. There is fresh fruit available (even in Antarctica) and lots of frozen fruit as well.
You really should eat you daily helping of fruit!! Some of the larger antioxidants come in the form of proteins and enzymes. Fruits like cranberries and blueberries are popular examples of antioxidants. Green Tea is another. They help prevent oxidative stress in your cells by destroying the ROS.
For those of you who are into biochemistry, or if you are in my AP Bio class - you can link this to oxidation and oxygen's role as the final electron acceptor. For the rest of you, go eat some fresh fruit and help you cells defend themselves against the stress caused by ROS.
While you are enjoying those blueberries, let me finish explaining how this relates to the questions of Drs. O'Brien and Crockett.
Fact 1 Hemoglobin carries iron in our blood.
Fact 2 Iron is a powerful oxidant...which means it acts like an ROS and it can facilitate the generation of ROS.
Fact 3 The Antarctic icefishes have no hemoglobin in their blood. Ahhhh, it's getting interesting now.
Hypothesis Iron metabolism (a fancy way of saying the chemical reactions involving iron) must be very different in the white and red-blooded fishes. I mean, like where is the iron in the white-blooded fishes? That's what I'm thinking. Well, that's what they are thinking too. They want to look at the proteins that bind to iron and help sequester (ahh, good word), anyway, it helps sequester that iron which in turn lowers the likelihood that the iron will catalyze the production of ROS. (Think back to our enzyme lab. What is a catalyst?)
So there you have it. Remember to have some dried prunes - good in so many ways. Diane, the cook, pointed out to me that they contain a higher amount of antioxidants. Tomorrow I will return to the ongoing experiment that I described yesterday. The oxygen generators are hooked up and we are ready to start. Until then, Happy Antioxidazing...
Keith (our other fantastic cook) was kind enough to pose with this nutritious bag of dried prunes - which claim to be full of more antioxidants than blueberries!