Scientists have managed to keep a pig’s brain alive outside its body
Scientists have managed to keep m aliveozg pigs for 36 hours. Interestingly, the porcine mozgi were obtained from a slaughterhouse and, during the experiment, the researchers managed to restore theociculate the circulation in them, so to speak, proving that billions of comorec moThe cells were still capable of activity.
The experiment has pomoc in the study of mozg, offering scientists a new wayob work on these organs in the laboratory. This could lead to a better understanding of the connections between roThe mozgu. However, commentators point out that what has been successful with mopigs, may be repeatedothrown with human mozgami. If human mozg could be kept alive outside the body, it would change the definition of death.
The experiments were reported at a meeting at the National Institutes of Health, the ktorym discussed ethical issues related to the latest advances in research on mozgiem. The work of scientistsow from Yale University has been submitted for publication, and the MIT Technological Review wrote about it.
Nenad Sestan, who headed the study, explained at the aforementioned meeting that his teamoł has obtained between 100 and 200 mozgoin pigs from slaughterhouses. Researchers have used pumps, warmers and artificial blood to restore theoThe experiments could also be due to the fact that the oxygen supply to the mozgu. Sestan admitted that they had not found evidence ofoin order to mozgi has regained some form of consciousness, but its compositeoł observed that a significant proportion of comorecords in the mozgach behaved normally, as if nothing had happened. Billions of them appeared healthy and capable of normal activity. Sestan admitted that this was a rather unexpected and surprising result.
Central to the Yale researchers’ experiments turned out to be the microcirculatory restoration system they developed, whichory was named BrainEx. The method involves connecting mozgu into a closed loop of pipes and a tank ofoin ensuring the circulation of the fluid, whichory delivers oxygen to the trunk of the moof the zgu, the artery of the mogland and into blood vessels deep in the center of the mozgu. Researchers say this approach can be used for roof different speciesoin, including primates.
Yale scientists managed to keep the mozg a large mammal without using low temperatures. These are the first such successful experiments. The earlier proto keep mozg completely separated from its body were carried out on rodents.
The researchers also checked the electrical activity of such mozgow with the help of EEG apparatus. They did not observe such activity, although they initially believed they had found such signals, causing alarm and excitement in the lab, but poIt later turned out that these signals were „noise” produced by nearby devices.
Perhaps there would have been a different effect if the method developed at Yale had been used immediately after killing the animal. MoThe pig deaths were delivered to the laboratory about four hours after the animals died. The reason could also be roThe various chemicals used to stop swelling. Sestan explained that separated from the bodies of the mozgs hooked up to their apparatus produce m wavesozgowe corresponding to the condition of the mozgu in a comatose state.
The researchers began work on the technique four years ago with the intention of creating a comprehensive atlas of the connections between human comorkami mozg. Someore of these connections are likely to extend to large areas of the mozgu and can be more easily traced in a complete, intact organ. Disembodied mozg moheads to be used for experiments and testing roThe new method for developing anti-cancer therapies or treating the disease has been dubbed BrainExob neurodegenerative. Although this raises serious controversy.
– These mozgi may be damaged, but if the comorks are alive, it is a living organ of the – said the Steve Hyman Broad Institute in Cambridge, whichory was not involved in the research. – This is extreme technical know-how, but not roThis differs too much from the way the kidney is preserved – He added.
The similarity of these experimentsow for transplant preparation techniquesoin the organoin such as hearts and lungs may result in someoThose who mistakenly perceive such technology as a way toob to avoid death – assessed Hyman. He also added that such hopes are fated, at least currently. The transplant mozgu is impossible and raises many ethical questions.
This does not mean that experiments are not being conductedoin this field. Professor Sergio Canavero, called Dr. Frankenstein by the media, has been experimenting with head transplants for years. It is known for its controversial experimentsoIn animal experiments conducted on animals. Under his scalpel were dogs or monkeys, whichore were swapped heads. Someore animals, according to the professor, lived for more than 20 hours after the head transplant, and in experiments with rodents this result was improved to almost a month. A controversial professor even performed a head transplant procedure on a dead patient.
Canavero announced the transplantation of a living human head. They even volunteered to do so. He is a Russian computer scientist suffering from incurable spinal muscular atrophy – Valery Spiridonov, for whomorego such treatment is the only chance for survival. The transplant was scheduled to take place last December. Then Canavero postponed the date to the beginning of this year, but so far nothing like this has happened. For more on the controversial professor, see several other texts on our site.