Roth’s hibernation research made headlines worldwide in April 2005 when he was the first to show that exposing mice to minute amounts of hydrogen sulfide could induce a state of reversible “hibernation on demand,” dramatically reducing their core body temperature, respiration and need for oxygen. Roth envisions a future in which similar techniques could be used to “buy time” for critically ill patients who otherwise would face injury and death from insufficient blood and oxygen supply to organs and tissues.
Roth hypothesizes that H2S, a chemical normally produced in humans and animals, may help regulate body temperature and metabolic activity. Hydrogen sulfide is similar to oxygen at the molecular level because it binds at many of the same proteins. As a result, H2S competes for and interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen for energy production – a process within the cell’s power-generating machinery called oxidative phosphorylation.
The inhibition of this function, in turn, is what Roth and colleagues believe causes organisms such as mice to shut down metabolically and enter a hibernation-like state pending re-exposure to normal room air, after which they quickly regain normal function and metabolic activity with no long-term negative effects.
Read more at:
http://phys.org/news/2007-12-hydrogen-sulfide-key-life.html#jCp