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posted by martyb on Friday April 27 2018, @05:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the "some-pig" dept.

A breakthrough in restoring micro-circulation has allowed scientists to keep pig brains alive outside of a body:

In a step that could change the definition of death, researchers have restored circulation to the brains of decapitated pigs and kept the reanimated organs alive for as long as 36 hours.

The feat offers scientists a new way to study intact brains in the lab in stunning detail. But it also inaugurates a bizarre new possibility in life extension, should human brains ever be kept on life support outside the body.

The work was described on March 28 at a meeting held at the National Institutes of Health to investigate ethical issues arising as US neuroscience centers explore the limits of brain science.

During the event, Yale University neuroscientist Nenad Sestan disclosed that a team he leads had experimented on between 100 and 200 pig brains obtained from a slaughterhouse, restoring their circulation using a system of pumps, heaters, and bags of artificial blood warmed to body temperature. There was no evidence that the disembodied pig brains regained consciousness. However, in what Sestan termed a "mind-boggling" and "unexpected" result, billions of individual cells in the brains were found to be healthy and capable of normal activity.

It's possible that the level of function could be increased, and the brains could be kept alive indefinitely:

Sestan now says the organs produce a flat brain wave equivalent to a comatose state, although the tissue itself "looks surprisingly great" and, once it's dissected, the cells produce normal-seeming patterns.

The lack of wider electrical activity could be irreversible if it is due to damage and cell death. The pigs' brains were attached to the BrainEx device roughly four hours after the animals were decapitated.

However, it could also be due to chemicals the Yale team added to the blood replacement to prevent swelling, which also severely dampen the activity of neurons. "You have to understand that we have so many channel blockers in our solution," Sestan told the NIH. "This is probably the explanation why we don't get [any] signal."

Sestan told the NIH it is conceivable that the brains could be kept alive indefinitely and that steps could be attempted to restore awareness. He said his team had elected not to attempt either because "this is uncharted territory."

Next step: hooking it up to a computer?

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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday April 27 2018, @06:49PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 27 2018, @06:49PM (#672729) Journal

    I was just going to add that Nixon's brain is probably a wee bit past the "sell by" date.

    But there is a current madman who might be interested in this capability to continue to rule beyond the design lifespan and warranty of the physical body in which it is encased.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday April 27 2018, @07:15PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday April 27 2018, @07:15PM (#672740)

    But there is a current madman

    Only one? I'm guessing there are a lot of madmen who would love to live forever.

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    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 4, Funny) by edIII on Friday April 27 2018, @07:35PM

    by edIII (791) on Friday April 27 2018, @07:35PM (#672751)

    Yes, and the current madman and a pig are basically indistinguishable anyways. Let the science commence!

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