Yale study revives cellular activity in pig brains hours after death

[webfact]

Yale study revives cellular activity in pig brains hours after death

By Steve Gorman

 

Piglets are pictured in a production module at the pig farm Granjas Carrol de Mexico (GCM), in Cuyoaco, Puebla state, Mexico August 4, 2017. Picture taken August 4, 2017. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido

 

(Reuters) - Yale University scientists have succeeded in restoring basic cellular activity in pigs' brains hours after their deaths in a finding that may one day lead to advances in treating human stroke and brain injuries, researchers reported on Wednesday.

 

The scientists emphasized that their work did not even come close to reawakening consciousness in the disembodied pig brains. In fact the experiment was specifically designed to avoid such an outcome, however improbable.

 

Still, the study raises a host of bioethical issues, including questions about the very definition of brain death and potential consequences for protocols related to organ donation.

 

The research grew out of efforts to enhance the study of brain development, disorders and evolution. The main practical application is the prospect of allowing scientists to analyse whole brain specimens of large mammals in three dimensions, rather than through studies confined to small tissue samples, Yale said.

 

The study, backed by the National Institutes of Health, offers no immediate clinical breakthrough for humans, according to the authors.

 

Results of the experiment, to be published on Thursday in the journal Nature, run contrary to long-accepted principles of brain death, which hold that vital cellular activity ceases irreversibly seconds or minutes after oxygen and blood flow are cut off.

 

The limited rejuvenation of circulatory function and cellular metabolism in pig brains, which were harvested from animals slaughtered at a meat-packing plant, was achieved four hours after death by infusing the brains with a special chemical solution designed to preserve the tissue.

 

"The intact brain of a large mammal retains a previously underappreciated capacity for restoration of circulation and certain molecular and cellular activities multiple hours after circulatory arrest," lead researcher Nenad Sestan said in a Yale press release issued ahead of the study.

 

It was in the lab run by Sestan, a Yale professor of neuroscience, comparative medicine, genetics and psychiatry, that researchers developed the so-called BrainEx system used to pump artificial nutrients into the pig brains' vascular network.

 

'NOT A LIVING BRAIN'

Scientists stressed, however, that the treated brains still lacked any detectable signs of organised electrical activity associated with perception, awareness or consciousness.

 

"Clinically defined, this is not a living brain, but it is a cellularly active brain," study co-author Zvonimir Vrselja, associate researcher in neuroscience.

 

The BrainEx preservative included substances to block nerve signals. Researchers also were ready to halt any electrical activity that might have emerged through anesthetics and temperature reduction, according to Yale.

 

While the study offers no immediate therapeutic benefits for humans, it creates a new research platform that may ultimately help doctors find ways to revive brain function in stroke patients or to test new treatments for restoring brain cells damaged by injury, the authors said.

 

In the meantime, the research could spark new quandaries surrounding the determination of death itself, widely defined by one measure as the irreversible loss of all brain function. The blurring of that line has implications in turn for deciding when doctors are ethically bound to go from preserving a patient's life to preserving their organs.

 

"For most of human history, death was very simple," Christof Koch, president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, said in a Nature article accompanying publication of the Yale study.

 

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Tarrant and Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-18

[Puchaiyank]

Death is still straightforward and simple...some humans are rather intrigued by the idea of immortality and try their best to cheat death...how boring...????

[Chomper Higgot]

1 hour ago, Puchaiyank said:

Death is still straightforward and simple...some humans are rather intrigued by the idea of immortality and try their best to cheat death...how boring...????

Or maybe science reveals something about death that is not so straight forward and simple. 

 

How interesting. 

[Rimmer]

Off topic/troll post removed

[Hayduke]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Yale University scientists have succeeded in restoring basic cellular activity in pigs' brains hours after their deaths

 

Government House is watching closely.

 

 

[Bluespunk]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Yale University scientists have succeeded in restoring basic cellular activity in pigs' brains hours after their deaths in a finding that may one day lead to advances in treating human stroke and brain injuries, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Hmm, is this how the zombie apocalypse begins...

 

(Sarcasm alert...I know it begins with someone dropping a vial of weapons grade virus in an underground lab)

[bristolboy]

3 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

Death is still straightforward and simple...some humans are rather intrigued by the idea of immortality and try their best to cheat death...how boring...????

Used to be straightforward and simple.

[Crossy]

I wonder if they would be able to start (not re-start) the brain function of some of the local truck and bus drivers.

 

Now that really would be a scientific advance.

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Hmm, is this how the zombie apocalypse begins...

 

(Sarcasm alert...I know it begins with someone dropping a vial of weapons grade virus in an underground lab)

 

It's a work of fiction mate. Someone's idea of entertainment.

 

Ain't real. Any resemblance to the current UK parliament is purely co-incidental! 

[Baerboxer]

27 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I wonder if they would be able to start (not re-start) the brain function of some of the local truck and bus drivers.

 

Now that really would be a scientific advance.

 

You make the assumption there is a brain there in the first place!

[Bluespunk]

2 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

It's a work of fiction mate. Someone's idea of entertainment.

 

Ain't real. Any resemblance to the current UK parliament is purely co-incidental! 

Might well be a hoax, but it's a very successful one if it is, all over the mainstream press in UK.

 

However, should point out my post was made in jest...

[tandor]

46 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I wonder if they would be able to start (not re-start) the brain function of some of the local truck and bus drivers.

 

Now that really would be a scientific advance.

best leave them be.

[tandor]

2 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Hmm, is this how the zombie apocalypse begins...

 

(Sarcasm alert...I know it begins with someone dropping a vial of weapons grade virus in an underground lab)

..what's that crackling sound?

[nausea]

To sleep, perchance to dream. My one comfort in life is that death is the end, to think about activity going on in the brain after death is pretty scary.

[bristolboy]

Here's a horrible piece of information I acquired somewhere or other. During the French revolution, after victims were guillotined, there would be ghouls who would pick up the fallen heads. It's said that 1 in 5 of them would try to speak.

[RickBradford]

29 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Here's a horrible piece of information I acquired somewhere or other. During the French revolution, after victims were guillotined, there would be ghouls who would pick up the fallen heads. It's said that 1 in 5 of them would try to speak.

I read an equally horrible article, somewhere or other, maybe New Scientist, which suggested that the rate of reduction of blood pressure to the brain after guillotining would mean that the victim would not lose consciousness for 2 to 3 seconds, but might suffer a severe headache. 

 

I think the "try to speak" notion may have come from residual electrical actions causing the lips to move slightly, or some sort of rictus. Still, who knows? Ethically speaking, it's a tough experiment to conduct .....

[MickeyDelux]

Mmmm bacon

[Benmart]

20 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Or maybe science reveals something about death that is not so straight forward and simple. 

 

How interesting. 

I'm both interested and bored. Both sides are connected.

[bert bloggs]

21 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Or maybe science reveals something about death that is not so straight forward and simple. 

 

How interesting. 

But did he see Jesus?

[tandor]

14 hours ago, bristolboy said:

Here's a horrible piece of information I acquired somewhere or other. During the French revolution, after victims were guillotined, there would be ghouls who would pick up the fallen heads. It's said that 1 in 5 of them would try to speak.

..i thought all ghouls could speak.