What Are Cold Shock Proteins?

Cold shock proteins are stress proteins that are activated by cold exposure. They’ve been reported in a wide range of organisms, from bacteria to amphibians to humans. A major function of these proteins is to help organisms cope with cold stress and adapt to changing environments.

Whether you are sitting in a hot sauna at 90 -100 degrees C or sitting in an ice bath at 5 -10 degrees C, the body is being hit with an extremely stressful situation that it is attempting to combat and preserve life through various mental and physical responses.

As a coping mechanism and adaptive response, the body produces or releases cold shock proteins. These cold shock proteins help us cope with the cold and also adapt to the sudden environmental change – essentially to keep us alive.

Cold shock proteins have been studied and recorded by scientists and have some amazing known and potential benefits. There are a few key cold shock proteins that are quintessential to the cold therapy practice.

Some key cold shock proteins identified and studied in humans are:

·         CARHSP1

·         Lin28

·         YB-1

·         RBM3

What Are The Benefits of Cold Shock Proteins?

Cold shock proteins from cold water immersion provide some pretty spectacular benefits for exercise recovery, reducing inflammation, wound healing and potential benefits for cancer and preventing tumour growth.

The main benefits of cold shock proteins which make them a highly desirable affect of a habituated cold therapy practice are: maintaining muscle mass, neuroprotective effects, wound healing and  

There is evidence that cold shock proteins from taking an ice bath can help to reduce loss of muscle mass during bouts of decreased physical exercise. This can be a game changer during periods of injury or limited movement for athletes, in order to maintain muscle mass. 

“CIRP and RBM3 predominately respond to hypothermia in mammalian cells. Specifically, RBM3 increases in response to hypothermia which leads to a decrease in apoptosis which could prevent a decrease in skeletal muscle mass”.

Dr Rhonda Patrick discusses the benefits of cold shock proteins on her podcast and website FoundMyFiitness, where she explains that they “promote cell survival, activates antioxidant enzymes and may offer neuroprotective qualities”. The cold shock protein RBM3, which we have discussed in our other article on the neuroprotective and neuroplasticity benefits of ice baths, have been directly linked to neurogenesis, facilitating the regeneration of damaged neurons. In this way, cold shock proteins may have exciting utility for treatment of neurodegenerative issues like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Traumatic Brain Injury.

The cold shock protein, YB-1 offers benefits in promoting wound healing and may also hold crucial information for cancer disease research. This same study discusses the potential future in cold shock protein research, stating “Beyond their diagnostic potential, we envision that therapeutic interventions targeting cold shock proteins may reduce disease burden”, and that “that cold shock proteins may regulate the formation of protein aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases”.

Article:https://www.myritual.com.au/journal/cold-shock-proteins

Study: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/planning-and-improving-research/application-summaries/research-summaries/the-cold-shock-response-induced-by-cold-water-swimming/

Paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9518606/ 

Source: What Are Cold Shock Proteins? – Scents of Science (myfusimotors.com)