Background: Physiological responses to cold exhibit individual variation that can be affected by various factors, such as morphological characteristics, seasonal changes, and lifestyle; however, the genetic factors associated with this variation remain unclear. Recent studies have identified mtDNA as a potential genetic factor affecting cold adaptation. In addition, non-shivering thermogenesis (NST), a process closely related to mitochondrial dynamics, has also been suggested as an important factor affecting human response to cold. The present study aimed to clarify the relationship between mitochondrial haplogroup and NST during periods of mild cold exposure.Methods: Seventeen healthy university students (D: n = 8, non-D: n = 9) participated in the present study during summer and winter. A climate chamber was programmed so that ambient temperature inside dropped from 28°C to 16°C over the course of an 80-minute period. Physiological parameters were recorded throughout the course of the experiments.Results: Increases in VO2 were significantly greater during periods of cold exposure in winter than they were during periods of cold exposure in summer, and individuals from the D group exhibited greater winter values of ΔVO2 than individuals from the non-D group.Tre was significantly lower during periods of rest and cold exposure in winter; however, no significant difference was observed between Tre values of individuals in the D and non-D groups. In addition, although T-dist was significantly lower during periods of rest in winter than it was during those same periods in summer, no significant seasonal differences in values of T-dist were observed during periods of cold exposure.Conclusions: Results of the present study indicated that NST was greater in winter, and that the D group exhibited greater NST than the non-D group during winter. Despite the differences between groups in NST, no significant differences in rectal and skin temperatures were found between groups in either season. Therefore, it was supposed that mitochondrial DNA haplogroups had a greater effect on variation in energy expenditure involving NST than they had on insulative responses. Future studies are necessary in order to investigate more multiple candidate genes related to human cold adaptation and to elucidate the relationship between gene polymorphism and physiological polytypism.
雑誌名
Journal of Physiological Anthropology
巻
33
号
1
ページ
27
発行年
2014-09-03
出版者
日本生理人類学会
出版者別言語
Japan Society of Physiological Anthropology
ISSN
18806805
DOI
10.1186/1880-6805-33-27
権利
c 2014 Nishimura and Watanuki; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
著者版フラグ
publisher
引用
Journal of Physiological Anthropology, 33(1), 27; 2014
Relationship between mitochondrial haplogroup and seasonal changes of physiological responses to cold
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