A team of researchers has invented a device that can keep the brain alive outside the body, and work independently from the rest of the body's organs.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center in the United States were able to isolate the blood flow to the brain of a pig anesthetized with ketamine, while a computer algorithm maintained the necessary blood pressure, volume, temperature and nutrients the organ needed.
The team of neurologists reported that brain activity saw slight changes over a five-hour period, despite not receiving any biological input from the rest of the body.
The success of the experiment could lead to new ways to study the human brain without affecting other body functions, while the technology opens the possibility of brain transplants in the future.
“This new method allows brain-focused research to be conducted independently of the body, allowing us to answer physiological questions in a way that has never been done,” said Juan Pascual, MD, professor of neuroscience, pediatrics and physiology at the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development at the University of Texas Southwestern. It has been done before."
The first system of its kind, referred to as extracorporeal pulsatile circulation control (EPCC), has already been used to better understand the effects of hypoglycemia on the brain without having to consider external factors.
Research into low blood sugar usually involves restricting laboratory animals' food intake, or giving them a dose of insulin, but animal bodies have their own natural ways to compensate for these factors by changing their metabolism.
Isolating the brain in this way allowed researchers to study the effect of nutrient intake independently of the body's natural defense mechanisms.
The research was detailed in a study titled “Repair of porcine brain function under extracorporeal pulsatile circulation control (EPCC),” which was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
“With the exception of increased brain tissue oxygenation upon oxygen supplementation and moderate changes in intracranial pressure, this regimen was associated with near-native levels of cerebral physiological parameters such as intracranial pressure and tissue oxygen saturation,” the researchers concluded in their study published earlier this month. And temperature.”
Scientists warn of a deadly virus that may be unleashed soon!
A team of scientists have issued a chilling warning that a deadly virus, 'Factor X', could be lurking in Earth's permafrost, waiting to be unleashed.
Scientists said climate change has increased the likelihood of unleashing a range of deadly diseases, which have been dormant for hundreds of thousands of years, as the planet continues to warm. This is because frozen soil, or permafrost, combines with a large number of dormant microbial species, many of which scientists do not talk about or do not mention.
Experts warn that it could also unleash extinct diseases like smallpox, or pathogens that wreaked havoc among our ancestors.
"There's an long period of homo sapiens existence.”
According to virologist Jean-Michel Claverie, from the University of Aix-Marseille, ancient viruses that infected Neanderthals or mammoths and caused their extinction may also be present within this permafrost.
When asked what might be lurking in the frozen tundra, he told Newsweek: "Viruses from extinct diseases like smallpox; anthrax that is ever-present, through areas contaminated with spores; and also the accelerating spread of diseases already known to exist in the Arctic today like disease." Tularemia, a serious bacterial infection, or tick-borne encephalitis.”
Scientists have highlighted six frozen pathogens that they believe pose the greatest threat to humanity.
Just last year, a team of experts also announced that they had revived a 48,500-year-old virus found in thawing permafrost in Siberia.
Although the viruses are not considered a danger to humans, scientists warn that other pathogens in the melting ice could be "catastrophic" and lead to new epidemics.
Experts estimate that a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere lies above permafrost, but large areas are now melting as the world warms.
The planet is already 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in pre-industrial times, and scientists have warned that the Arctic may witness an ice-free summer by the 2030s.