[ad_1]
This combination of images provided by the Yale School of Medicine in April 2019 shows colorful photos under the microscope of neurons, in green; red astrocytes and blue cell nuclei of an untreated pork brain for 10 hours after his death, and another with a blood substitute specifically designed to be injected.
(Stefano G. Daniele, Zvonimir Vrselja / Sestan Laboratory / Yale School of Medicine)
A team of Yale scientists has been successful in reviving cell activity in the brains of pigs slaughtered hours ago, challenging previous assumptions that brain cells would die irreversibly once blood flow would have occurred. ceased.
According to the researchers, the pigs had been dead for four hours when the brain cells were revived. Researchers used a special device that circulated a "blood chemical solution" in the pig's brain, which maintained cell activity six hours later. The study was funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health.
This does not mean that the pigs were "alive" in that they had electrical activity associated with "consciousness," said lead researcher Dr. Nenad Sestan. It simply meant that their brain was "cellular" and that their brains had no large scale electrical activity that would indicate awareness.
NASA scientists send mice into space to study the effects of microgravity on humans
Sestan said the findings had profound implications for stroke treatments and other disorders responsible for brain cell death. Co-investigator Stephen Latham, director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, said the same process could be used to preserve the organ harvested for donations.
GET THE FOX NEWS APP
But the experience also raised some ethical concerns. Bioethicist Nita Farahany, who advocated ethical guidelines for similar experiences in the future, said the study left a "gaping gray zone" with little or no indication of how to proceed ethically. ".
Associated Press contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link