Chinese scientists and the case of brains “awakened” an hour after death

Brains “awakened” one hour after death. It seems like a disturbing science fiction (or horror) film, but it is documented by a rather controversial study published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine and created by a Chinese team which also includes Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

A group of Chinese researchers have in fact managed to reactivate the brain organs of a series of deceased pigs, restoring their activity after blood circulation had ceased due to a cardio-circulatory arrest triggered by general ischemia. The investigation, led by Xiaoshun He of the Chinese university, could be useful in the very complicated path of recovery of brain function after cardiac arrest in a human. Changing the perspectives of resuscitation and increasing survival rates from these traumatic events. But sure, the road to get there seems like it full of animal suffering and questionable Frankenstein tests.

Through a series of experiments conducted on 17 Tibetan pigs raised in the laboratory, the team in fact examined two groups of animals subjected to cerebral ischemia for 30 minutes: one of the groups was also subjected to hepatic ischemia. A third control group did not suffer any ischemia. The results, obtained from the analysis of the brains after the death of the animals, showed that the group not subjected to hepatic ischemia had significantly less brain damage compared to the group that also suffered hepatic ischemia.

The role of the liver therefore appears central to extend the resuscitation windowwhich at the moment for humans has been played out entirely in the a few minutes after a heart attack: the procedures should in fact start within two minutes of the event, given that the risk of irreversible brain damage increases exponentially in the third minute, precisely due to the interruption of the flow of blood, oxygen and nutrients to the brain and other organs. The estimate is that for every minute that passes, the chances of irreversible damage and death increase by 10% due to hypoxic-anoxic injuries.

Returning to the liver, it is also known that its role in this area is essential: for example, researchers note in the investigation that, conversely, people suffering from liver disease possibly affected by cardiac arrest have a higher mortality and poorer neurological recovery.

The next phase of the complicated research carried out by the Guangdong Provincial International Cooperation Base of Science and Technology Guangzhou and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Organ Medicine consisted in the attempt to integrate a healthy liver into your life support systemreviving a set of brains that had been completely separated from the body. A scenario naturally outside of any applicability on human beings but a highly experimental approach in which, to a basic life support system with artificial heart and lungs, a liver was added in a group of pigs. Technically this model is called perfusion cerebral normothermic machine and it is precisely a mixed device composed of real organs and artificial instruments.

The team connected the brains to be reactivated to the system assisted with liver integration a intervals of 30, 50, 60 and 240 minutes after death. The most promising interval appeared to be that of 50 minutes after cessation of blood circulation: in this case, the pigs’ brains have regained electrical activity and have maintained for 6 hoursuntil the end of the experiment. Even in the case of the liverless system the brain was reactivated (but 30 minutes after the event), however the activity ceased a few minutes later.

This is obviously a test ethically – and not only – to the limit. If not already beyond. The experiment highlighted, among other things, how in brains deprived of oxygen for 60 minutes, cerebral electrical activity returned for only three hours before decreasing, suggesting a critical interval in which extended resuscitation can be successful with the integration of a functioning liver (of course, with an artificial replacement) into any supporting apparatus to be developed in the future. «The addition of a functioning liver to the brain NMP circuit significantly reduced post-CA brain injury (cardiac arrest, ed.), increased neuronal viability and improved electrocortical activity – we read in the abstract of the investigation – our study highlights the crucial role of the liver in the pathogenesis of post-CA brain injury.”

SCIENTIFIC SOURCES CITED IN THIS ARTICLE:

Study Liver protects neuron viability and electrocortical activity in post-cardiac arrest brain injury