Pythons are notorious for their eating habits. After suffocating the prey with its soft corpse, the snakes devoured the whole animal. Now, researchers have given new insights into the cellular mechanisms that allow them to digest the entire skeleton.
The study, published on July 9 at the Belgian Annual Conference on Experimental Biology, studied the intestinal cells of Burmese pythons. Adult men can grow to 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 meters), and their size is impressive, allowing them to feed on a wide variety of mammals and birds, including deer and crocodiles. Unlike other predators that eat only meat, snakes rely on animal bones as a source of calcium. However, absorbing all available calcium from the bones can cause excessive nutrients to enter the snake’s blood. Called hypercalcemia, it can cause heart disease, hypertension, bone defects and renal failure in reptiles.
“We want to determine how [pythons] Able to treat and limit the enormous absorption of calcium through the intestinal wall.
To this end, Mumu and his colleagues fed pythons in three different diets: normal rats, boneless rats or boneless rats rich in calcium carbonate to match the levels of natural bone calcium. Instead of receiving any of these diets, a group of snakes fasted for three weeks to provide baseline. Three to six days after feeding, the researchers euthanized humanely and dissected the snake to extract the small intestine.
They then analyzed Python’s enterocytes or enteric lining cells using light and electron microscopy and measured blood calcium and hormone levels. This reveals a cell that has never been seen before, producing large particles made of calcium, phosphorus and iron. These particles form a wood-like structure that turns into a “sphere”.
“Monologic analysis of Python’s epithelium reveals specific particles I’ve never seen in other vertebrates,” Lignot said. He and his colleagues found specialized cells different from traditional intestinal cells in the internal “crypt” (a small pocket or cavity). “Unlike normal absorption of intestinal epithelial cells, these cells are very narrow and have short microvilli [finger-like membrane protrusions]and has a top fold forming the basement. ” he added.
Three different diets that Pythons eat allow researchers to evaluate the function of these unique cells. In snakes that eat boneless prey, intestinal epithelial cells produce no calcium and phosphorus-rich particles. However, in those who eat whole rodents or calcium replenishment, the crypts of cells are filled with large particles of calcium, phosphorus and iron. This suggests that these cells play an important role in breaking the bones of python prey. The researchers found no bones in the snake’s feces, confirming that all bones were completely digested and dissolved in their bodies.
Although it was originally identified in Burmese pythons, this new cell type is not unique to them. Since its initial discovery, researchers have discovered other species of Pythons, Boas and these specialized skeletal digestive cells from Gila Monster, a venomous lizard species in the southwestern United States and Mexico.
These findings seem to point to a system of research on mineral regulation in reptile digestive systems. However, according to Lignot, this mechanism may also extend to other types of carnivores, such as sharks and other marine predators, aquatic mammals, or raptors like bearded vultures. He told Gizmodo that he hopes the work will inspire other researchers to search for these newly discovered cells throughout the animal kingdom.
