The Relation between Biological Consequences and High Temperature in Mammals

Because of the temperature is one of the most encountered stressful factors in the environment, it was deemed important to survey the literature for reports on high temperatures or hyperthermia exposure durations at which biological effects occur. Since that time, several method of heating the entire body have evolved, including the artificial induction of fever, the wrapping of an anesthetized patient in plastic and dipping them in hot wax and heating the blood supply. The aim of this review was to determine the changes in tissue temperature and the duration of this effect. In general, the higher the temperature or the longer the hyperthermia, the greater the chance for observing a perturbation to the biological effects. It appears reasonably well established that, short exposure to sharply-elevated temperatures result in a protective effect against further thermal insult; the generation of heat shock proteins by cells coincides with the onset of such "thermal protection". It can be concluded that, thermal damage increases as the time at an elevated temperature increases.