In 2019, scientists from Yale used BrainEx technology to revive a pig’s brain after four hours of isolation from the body.[1]
This time, the same group modified BrainEx into called OrganEx to partially revive the organs of a whole pig. Nature published the research in its August 3, 2022, edition.[2]
How they did the experiment
Pigs were obtained from a local farm and observed for three days. Then they were sedated and connected to a mechanical ventilator and electrical shock-induced cardiac arrests.
Once death was confirmed, the animals were removed from the ventilators.
Some animals were reconnected to the ventilators one hour after death, and anesthesia started. Some pigs were given the solution modified from what they used in 2019 since that solution is specific for the brain. This time they included blood thinners and immune suppressants.
Some did not get any treatment, and the rest were hooked to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine for comparison.
The ECMO does the work of the heart and lungs mechanically. It was widely used in the early days of COVID-19.
According to Nature’s interview with David Andrijevic, a neuroscientist at Yale University and one of the researchers,
After six hours, the researchers noticed that circulation had restarted much more effectively in pigs that received the OrganEx solution than in those that received ECMO or no treatment.
Oxygen had begun flowing to tissues all over the bodies of the OrganEx animals, and a heart scan detected some electrical activity and contraction.
But the heart had not fully restarted, and it’s unclear what exactly it was doing in those animals.
Cells start to work again.
The livers of the OrganEx pigs started to produce much more albumin than the liver in the ECMO and no treatment group.
Furthermore, the cells of the vital organs of the OrganEx group responded to glucose much more than the other groups. Glucose is a sugar that cells use to make energy in the form of ATP. Once there is ATP, the cells may resume function.
Note: Minutes after the heart stops. The lack of oxygen in the cells triggers a series of steps that lead to rapid decomposition. Lysosomes inside the cell contain enzymes released to digest the cells and surrounding tissues to herald decomposition.
That makes the result compelling. Even after six hours of death, the cells of the OrganEx group were able to function again!
The researchers looked deeper into the tissues. They used single-nucleus transcriptomic analysis that showed gene expression patterns reflective of specific molecular and cellular repair processes in different organs and cell types.
Another striking thing about this experiment is that the cells that resumed some function are from warm dead pigs.
In the emergency room or hospital, if a person suffers a cardiac arrest and is revived but unconscious, the patient is put in therapeutic hypothermia.
Therapeutic hypothermia cools down the whole body and the brain to slow metabolism, preserve organ functions, and prevent brain damage. If hypothermia is not induced immediately, multi-system organ failure can ensue.
The creepy part
After the injection of a contrast dye to help visualize the pigs’ brains after the treatment, the OrganEx pigs started to jerk their head, neck, and torso involuntarily.
The researchers cannot explain why. No impulses were coming from the brain, so it could be that the stimuli for the movements were coming from the spinal cord.
From the Nature report, The researchers note that electrical activity in the pigs’ brains might have been absent because the solution they pumped through was colder (28 ºC or 82.4 ºF) than the average body temperature.
It may also be because it included anesthetic compounds and neuronal blockers that could have suppressed such signals.
Uses
Once perfected, this technology will help preserve organs for transplantation, and it can also be used for resuscitation in the future.
My thoughts
With all the reports of people who “suddenly died” nowadays, a big pharma company can make a fortune by asking the FDA to put the OrganEx Technology on Emergency Use Authorization.
Allow me to end with some entertainment. This is what our streets may look like in the future. Start at 0:47.
Don’t Get Sick!
Stay current by subscribing. Feel free to share and like. Please consider donating to show your support if you find value in this website.
References:
- Vrselja, Z. et al. Restoration of brain circulation and cellular functions hours post-mortem. Nature 568, 336–343 (2019)
- Andrijevic D et al. Cellular recovery after prolonged warm ischaemia of the whole body. Nature. 2022 August 3. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05016-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35922506.
- Pig organs partially revived in dead animals — researchers are stunned.
Image credit: Pigs in Finland By kallerna – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110364679
© 2018 – 2022 Asclepiades Medicine, LLC All Rights Reserved
DrJesseSantiano.com does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment