Anew milestone in science has been reached by a group of researchers from China. Led by Xiaoshun He, they have gone one step further in the study of the brain. It was years ago that the possibility of reviving brain activity in a pig after it had been dead for hours was demonstrated. This challenged theories about the irreversibility of brain death.
The results have been published in EMBO Molecular Medicine, and speak of the resuscitation of a pig’s brain almost an hour after its blood circulation had ceased.
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These studies, in addition to involving the brain, are closely related to the action of the liver in the body and how this organ could influence brain recovery. The experiment was carried out with a group of 17 Tibetan pigs.
The term ischemia is key to understanding this event
Ischemia is the deprivation of oxygen and nutrients to the brain due to the inaction of the heart. Thanks to this research, the introduction of the liver into this casuistry means that a window of possibilities opens up.
When conducting these experiments, they found that by including the liver in the activity, the brain’s reaction came to recover its electrical activity. Those brains that were not assisted with the liver deteriorated very rapidly, showing inflammation, cellular damage and decreased electrical activity.
However, liver-assisted brains showed less inflammation, healthier neurons and restored brain waves. This is because within the action of the liver, the organ regulates inflammation in the brain and provides an alternative energy source for the brain while the hypoxic moment is occurring.
In addition to the success of the study, another significant finding was revealed regarding the recovery of the brains after going through this situation, as the conditions were improved in which recovery would take place due to the lower presence of genes linked to cell death and inflammation.
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