On rainy summer evenings, molecular biology graduate student Sarah Brozio would leave the northern Trinidad field center she shared with lizards, tarantulas and human colleagues to search the forests for a peculiar substance called frog foam.
Rolling slowly along the roads in a weathered sedan, her small group would drive in silence, listening to the buzzes and squawks of the nightlife until they heard a pinging sound akin to arcade laser guns. When one of these males impressed a female with his melodious bravado, the two got frisky in a soggy ditch along the roadside. He hugged her from behind and fertilized her eggs, which she released along with a soup of proteins.
Together, both partners whipped the mixture into a thick froth using their back legs. This dome of foam prevented the eggs from drying out while also offering protection from predators, extreme temperatures and damage from ultraviolet rays and harmful bacteria.
In a study published today in Royal Society Open Science , they demonstrate that the amphibian lather could indeed be an effective alternative to the foams that doctors currently prescribe for conditions such as cuts or burns. Like many intrepid research proposals, it began as an idea over drinks. Microbial biochemist Paul Hoskisson and pharmaceutical engineer Dimitrios Lamprou formed an unlikely partnership at a pub at the University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow. She accompanied Hoskisson on several trips to Trinidad, and then got to work testing the foam in the lab.
For years, industrial foams have been used to apply cosmetics and deliver medications like antibiotics dermally, rectally and vaginally.
These synthetic concoctions dispense drugs across large swathes of skin, but many collapse within minutes or hours and dump their cargo prematurely. When treating wounds and burns with foams, doctors often have to frequently remove medical dressings so the foam can be re-applied.
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Environ Microbiol. The frog skin secretes mucus and poisons while the human skin secretes sweat and sebum. The chromatophores in the frog skin are guanophores, lipophores, melanophores, and xanthophores while melanocytes produce the pigments in the human skin.
The frog skin contains scales while the human skin contains fingernails and hair. Hence, this is another difference between frog and human integumentary system. A major difference between frog and human integumentary system is their function. The main functions of the frog integumentary system are protection, respiration, movement of nutrients, and camouflage while the human skin is responsible for protection, thermoregulation, and excretion.
Frog integumentary system is responsible for the respiration and thermoregulation. It produces four different colors involved in camouflage.
On the other hand, the human integumentary system is responsible for thermoregulation, but not for respiration. Also, frog skin is scaly while human skin contains hair and nails.
Therefore, the main difference between frog and human integumentary system is their structure and specialized functions. Duellman, W, E, and Linda Trueb. Available Here 2. Figure 1: Frog Skin. Figure 2: Human Skin.
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