Fleas pave the way for organ transplantation techniques

Snow fleas or tail fleas can live comfortably in frost. A few fleas know how to avoid the winter cold. They secrete an antifreeze, helping the body to freeze. Now, scientists say it is possible to extract the antifreeze to preserve human organs at low temperatures, thereby extending the time of travel and transplantation.

" Transplant organs must be kept at a freezing point or a little warmer ," said Laurie Graham of Queen's University in Ontario, Canada. " If we can lower the temperature to the level where the organ is stored safely, the shelf life will be longer ."

Graham's team isolated a special protein from the antifreeze. They said it could also be developed to increase frost resistance in plants, or to refrain from crystallization in frozen foods.

Snow fleas are also known as tails because they can jump hundreds of times higher than their bodies. Graham caught them on the snow slopes in the winter.

T. An ( according to LiveScience )