Scientists restore some functions in a pig’s brain hours after death
Published in Theories & Scenarios.
Immunofluorescent stains for neurons (green), astrocytes (red), and cell nuclei (blue) in a region of the hippocampus of a pig’s brain left untreated 10 hours after death (left) or subjected to perfusion with the BrainEx technology. Ten hours postmortem, neurons and astrocytes undergo cellular disintegration unless salvaged by the BrainEx system. (Image credit: Stefano G. Daniele & Zvonimir Vrselja; Sestan Laboratory; Yale School of Medicine)
Circulation and cellular activity were restored in a pig’s brain four hours after its death, a finding that challenges long-held assumptions about the timing and irreversible nature of the cessation of some brain functions after death, Yale scientists report April 17 in the journal Nature.
The brain of a postmortem pig obtained from a meatpacking plant was isolated and circulated with a specially designed chemical solution. Many basic cellular functions, once thought to cease seconds or minutes after oxygen and blood flow cease, were observed, the scientists report.
https://news.yale.edu/2019/04/17/scientists-restore-some-functions-pigs-brain-hours-after-death