Skip to main content
Natural Society
Store
MENUMENU
  • Latest News
    • Coming Soon!

      • Toxic Weedkiller Dicamba Drift Damages Crops Across America

        Toxic Weedkiller Dicamba Drift Damages Crops Across America

      • With 79.4 Million Obese Citizens, the U.S. is Leading in Obesity

        With 79.4 Million Obese Citizens, the U.S. is Leading in Obesity

      • U.S. Life Expectancy Drops Amid Rising Suicide, Drug Overdose Rates

        U.S. Life Expectancy Drops Amid Rising Suicide, Drug Overdose Rates

  • Healthy Living
    • Healthy Living

    • Coming Soon!

      • EWG Report: Your Tap Water is Contaminated with Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’

        EWG Report: Your Tap Water is Contaminated with Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’

      • Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

        Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

      • A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

        A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

  • Home Remedies
    • Natural Medicine

    • Popular

      • Hemorrhoids
      • Strep Throat
      • Gout
      • Teeth Whitening
      • Gum Disease
      • Kidney Cleanse
      • 6 of the Best Natural Remedies for Arthritis

        6 of the Best Natural Remedies for Arthritis

      • Kidney Cleanse: 22 Foods for Kidney Health

        Kidney Cleanse: 22 Foods for Kidney Health

      • How You’re Probably Chewing and Drinking Yourself Sick

        How You’re Probably Chewing and Drinking Yourself Sick

  • Food as Medicine
    • Food as Medicine

    • Popular

      • Importance of MAGNESIUM
      • Dates
      • Chamomile Tea
      • Black Cumin (Nigella Sativa)
      • Nettle Tea
      • Sesame Seeds and Sesame Oil
    • Recent Posts

      • A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

        A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

      • 11+ Reported Health Benefits of Basil Seeds

        11+ Reported Health Benefits of Basil Seeds

      • Ancient Medicine: Black Seed Oil’s 21 Powerful Health Benefits

        Ancient Medicine: Black Seed Oil’s 21 Powerful Health Benefits

  • Health Science
    • Health Science

    • Coming Soon!

      • Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

        Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

      • A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

        A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

      • Acetaminophen may Increase Stroke Risk in People with Diabetes

        Acetaminophen may Increase Stroke Risk in People with Diabetes

Creepy: Scientists Revive Brain Cells in Pigs Hours After Death

The experiment raises significant ethical questions.

Health Science

Julie Fidler
By Julie Fidler
Posted On April 18, 2019

When you’re dead, you’re dead. Once your brain stops “waving,” you’re as good as gone.

Right?

Well, maybe not. An ethically-questionable experiment has seen scientists revive the brain cells of pigs 4 hours after they died. The experiment did not produce consciousness, but the study blurs the line between what science considers “alive” and “dead.”

It also raises the question: Could a dead brain be brought back to life?

The scientists behind the experiment jump-started the blood vessels in the pigs’ brains, causing them to start working again, only instead of flowing with blood, they flowed with a “blood substitute.” Some of the cells regained metabolic activity and even responded to drugs. Electrical activity was detected in some of the neurons taken from slices of the animals’ treated brain tissue.

https://old.naturalsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/angiography-of-the-bex-perfused-brain-480h.mp4

The research is in the very earliest stages and it’s not clear what impact, if any, the findings may have on the treatment of brain injuries. But theoretically, the discoveries seem to suggest that it may be possible to recover parts of the brain after death.

Nita A. Farahany, a bioethicist and law professor at Duke University, said:

“We had clear lines between ‘this is alive’ and ‘this is dead.’ How do we now think about this middle category of ‘partly alive’? We didn’t think it could exist.”

The results also offer hope for people who have lost brain function due to injury or stroke. Those considered too far-gone may not beyond help after all. As well, new treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease could come from the experiment. [1] [2]

But before any of this science can be applied in the real world, there are tricky ethical matters to maneuver, including the potential impact on organ donation protocols. [2]

Jonathan Moreno, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, said: [1]

“This is wild. If ever there was an issue that merited big public deliberations on the ethics of science and medicine, this is one.”

The Experiment

Immunofluorescent stains for neurons (NeuN; green), astrocytes (GFAP; red), and cell nuclei (DAPI, blue) in the hippocampal CA3 region of brains either unperfused for 10 hours after death (left) or subjected to perfusion with the BrainEx technology (right). After 10 hours postmortem, neurons and astrocytes normally undergo cellular disintegration unless salvaged by the BrainEx system. Credit: Stefano G. Daniele & Zvonimir Vrselja; Sestan Laboratory; Yale School of Medicine

If you have a weak stomach, you might want to sit this part out.

For the experiment, researchers acquired the brains of 32 pigs that had been slaughtered 4 hours earlier. Over the course of 6 hours, the scientists infused the brains with a mixture of synthetic fluids designed to stop cells from breaking down and restore cellular functions, such as metabolic activity. [2]

The team was successful in its task. They successfully halted the break-down of the neurons and revived their function, allowing the brains to continue to consume oxygen and glucose.

In fact, the neurons showed “spontaneous synaptic activity,” meaning that the neurons were capable of sending out signals, and the cells responded to external electrical stimulation. When cells from the treated brains were examined under a microscope, the scientists found that they had regained the shape of living cells.

The pigs were still very much dead, but the experiment rattled the scientists’ notions about the fragility of the brain.

As for the more immediate ethical concerns, the researchers emphasized that live animals were not used in the experiment, and a chemical was used to ensure the brains would not have any risk of awareness.

Details of the experiment are published in the journal Nature.

Sources:

[1] The New York Times

[2] The Washington Post


Post written byJulie Fidler:
Julie Fidler has written hundreds of articles on key world topics such as health, drugs, and law. She is also the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. Oh, and she loves to take care of two ridiculously- spoiled cats in her free time.

One response to “Creepy: Scientists Revive Brain Cells in Pigs Hours After Death”

  1. GMOs Live Long & Prosper says:
    September 13, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    I wonder if this would work to revive jules brain?

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Newsletter

Featured Product

Essential Survival Tools

The Scrubbaâ„¢ Wash Bag




  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Store