It is believed that the death of a person or an animal comes
when his brain dies. But what if science knows how to save the brain
even with a dead body? It sounds scary, but this is exactly what
researchers from Yale University (Yale University) have done. Of course,
experiments were not conducted on humans, but the specialists had a
fairly large sample of pigs – the scientific group led by Nenad Sestan
had the opportunity to experiment with the brains of 100-200 beheaded
animals. In the end, scientists managed to support the life of the pig
brain within 36 hours.
To achieve this, the brains were treated with a liquid with a high
oxygen content. Thus, oxygen received a brain stem, cerebellar arteries,
small vessels located deep in the brain. Billions of cells, as the
authors of the study found, were alive and capable of activity. There
were no signs of consciousness at the same time, experts on bioethics
noted that the situation is far from science fiction works, where the
hero comes to consciousness and can not understand where he is, sees
nothing and does not feel anything. Pigs (their brains) remained
unconscious.
What is it for? First of all, thus, scientists want to explore how
the brain behaves, and also, perhaps, to start testing on the brain
therapy from various diseases from cancer to dementia. In addition,
experiments can be useful for studying the interaction between brain
cells. Nevertheless, ethical experts doubt that such experiments will
ever be conducted on people.
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Science