“To conduct the work, scientists pumped a blood substitute throughout the animals’ bodies after cardiac death using a system called OrganEx, a device similar to those that take over the function of a patient’s heart and lungs during surgery”
PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | AUGUST 9, 2022
Work will likely raise both ethical and scientific debates around the definition of death, Researchers have restored circulation and some cellular function in the organs of pigs a full hour after they died, Nature reports. If extended to deceased humans, the advance could help extend the window in which viable organs could be harvested from donors and transplanted.
To conduct the work, scientists pumped a blood substitute throughout the animals’ bodies after cardiac death using a system called OrganEx, a device similar to those that take over the function of a patient’s heart and lungs during surgery.
The blood substitute contained the pig’s blood and 13 other compounds that helped promote cellular health and suppress inflammation. The system slowed cellular decomposition and restored some organ functions, such as the ability of the heart to contract, the researchers report today in Nature.
OrganEx is an extension of 2019 experiments in which scientists partially revived pig brains hours after their deaths, and is similarly likely to raise both ethical and scientific debates around the definition of death.
Culled from Science
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