A new study has showed that cells don’t die as quickly as scientists had assumed and their functionality are restored in multiple vital organs even one hour after death.
The study carried out by researchers at Yale University showed they have been able to restore blood circulation and other cellular functions in pigs a full hour after the animals’ deaths, suggesting that cells don’t die as quickly as scientists had assumed.
The researchers used up to 100 pigs as part of the study and the animals were under anesthetic when the heart attack was induced.
“We used a system we developed called OrganEx which enables oxygen to be recirculated throughout a dead pig’s body, preserving cells and some organs after a cardiac arrest,” the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience and professor of comparative medicine, genetics and psychiatry at Yale, Dr. Nenad Sestan, said.
The OrganEx system pumps a fluid called a perfusate, mixed with blood, throughout the dead pigs’ blood vessels. The perfusate contains a synthetic form of the protein hemoglobin and several other compounds and molecules that help protect cells and prevent blood clots.
Findings of the study showed that these cells are functioning hours after they should not be, Dr Sestan, who led the study, said.
“Six hours after treatment with OrganEx, w found that certain key cellular functions were active in many areas of the pigs’ bodies, including in the heart, liver and kidney, and that some organ function had been restored,” he added.
While the research is still at an extremely early stage and very experimental, the researchers said they hoped that their work in pigs could ultimately be applied to humans, primarily in terms of developing ways to extend the window for transplants. The current supply of organs is extremely limited, with millions of people worldwide waiting for transplants.
“I think the technology has a great deal of promise for our ability to preserve organs after they’re removed from a donor,” said coauthor and director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, Stephen Latham, adding that, “You could take the organ from a deceased donor, and hook it up to the perfusion technology, and perhaps then be able to transport it long distance over a long period of time to get it to a recipient who needs it.”
The researchers made clear that they were not in any sense bringing the pigs back to life and more work would need to be done to understand whether the organs were useable for transplants.
“We couldn’t say that this study showed that any of the organs of this pig were ready for transplant into another animals, we don’t know that they’re all functioning, what we’re looking at is at the cellular and metabolic levels and we’re nowhere near being able to say, ‘Oh, my goodness, we’ve restored life not only to this pig, but to any of the individual organs.’ We can’t say that yet. It’s still very much too early,” explained Latham.
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