(MedPage Today) – Researchers said they were able to restore circulation and some cellular activity in pig brains hours after death, according to their report in Nature, though they emphasized that this came nowhere close to reviving global brain functioning.
An artificial perfusion system known as BrainEx was able to reduce cell death and restore microcirculation and certain molecular and cellular functions in pig brains up to 4 hours postmortem, reported Nenad Sestan, MD, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues.
The brains showed no evidence of organized, global electrical activity associated with awareness or perception, the researchers added.
“This is not a living brain, but a cellularly active brain,” Sestan said in a press conference. “These findings lay the groundwork for novel approaches to studying the postmortem brain and potentially restoring the function of damaged cells within the diseased brain.” Stroke treatment and recovery is perhaps the most important application of the research. CONTINUE