A group of researchers recently found out that a dead porcine brain can be revived (brain cells) when supplied with artificial circulatory fluid. In this particular experiment, the team was able to keep one brain functional for 36 hours.
A study published on April 17 in the journal Nature by the researchers Zvonimir Vrselja, Stefano G Daniele et al, the statement reads: “The isolated, intact large mammalian brain possesses an under-appreciated capacity for the restoration of microcirculation and molecular and cellular activity after a prolonged post-mortem interval.” In layman’s language they mean, return from death is possible for brain cells of slaughtered pigs.
As per medical science, the brain is the first organ to go after the heart stops beating because it suffers irreversible damage from oxygen starvation. But a group of researchers has turned the table upside down, bringing a new deal of success on biotech front.
The accomplishment challenges how we ethically, legally and philosophically define death, reported Smithsonian.
Ed Yong at The Atlantic reports that the team showed that neurons in the brains could still fire, but they never sparked back to life. Just in case one of their porcine patients did resume consciousness inside its glass sphere, they had anesthetic on hand to stop the process. But that was not necessary. “The pigs were brain-dead when their brains came in the door, and by the end of the experiment, they were still brain-dead,” Stephen Latham, the Yale ethicist that advised the team says.
Michael Greshko at National Geographic reports that the study shows that brains can be kept intact and working longer than we thought, but not conscious or aware.
Still, the entire concept is raising legal and ethical questions for many, and brings the long held concept of brain death under the microscope. “We had clear lines between ‘this is alive’ and ‘this is dead,’” Bioethicist Nita A. Farahany at Duke University tells Gina Kolata at The New York times. “How do we now think about this middle category of ‘partly alive’? We didn’t think it could exist.”
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