Iflln2fntsy
New member
There was an interesting article in Science this week about physiological changes in the Python heart and it got me clicking around the internet looking at the references used by the authors.
I know this is not about corn snakes, but I would think that something similar would occur in corn snakes after a meal.
Abstract:
"Oxygen consumption by carnivorous reptiles increases enormously after they have eaten a large meal in order to meet metabolic demands, and this places an extra load on the cardiovascular system. Here we show that there is an extraordinarily rapid 40% increase in ventricular muscle mass in Burmese pythons (Python molurus) a mere 48 hours after feeding, which results from increased gene expression of muscle-contractile proteins. As this fully reversible hypertrophy occurs naturally, it could provide a useful model for investigating the mechanisms that lead to cardiac growth in other animals." Link to the article
And I also thought that the comparison of pythons to mammals in Table 1 from this article was pretty interesting.
I know this is not about corn snakes, but I would think that something similar would occur in corn snakes after a meal.
Abstract:
"Oxygen consumption by carnivorous reptiles increases enormously after they have eaten a large meal in order to meet metabolic demands, and this places an extra load on the cardiovascular system. Here we show that there is an extraordinarily rapid 40% increase in ventricular muscle mass in Burmese pythons (Python molurus) a mere 48 hours after feeding, which results from increased gene expression of muscle-contractile proteins. As this fully reversible hypertrophy occurs naturally, it could provide a useful model for investigating the mechanisms that lead to cardiac growth in other animals." Link to the article
And I also thought that the comparison of pythons to mammals in Table 1 from this article was pretty interesting.