Scientists revive brain function in dead pigs

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick GALEY, April 17, 2019

Frankenswine: Experts said the study threw into question at what point an
animal, or even humans, are dead (AFP Photo/Damien MEYER)

Paris (AFP) - Scientists have managed to restore cell function in the brains of pigs hours after they died, in a breakthrough Wednesday that experts said threw into question the very notion of what makes animals -- or even humans -- alive.

Authors of the US-based study said their research could one day be used to help treat victims of heart attacks and strokes and unravel the mysteries of brain trauma.

In human and large mammal brains, cells crucial for neural function begin to degrade as soon as blood supply is cut -- a process long considered to be irreversible.

But the findings of the trial, published in the journal Nature, show that the brains of pigs can have their blood flow and cell function restored even hours after death.

The team from the NIH BRAIN initiative, a federally funded US research programme, used the brains of 32 pigs that had been slaughtered for food and discarded, without blood or glucose flow, for four hours each.

Then, using a tissue support system that pumps a liquid designed to mimic blood through organs, they rehydrated the brains for a further six hours.

Some brains received the patented life-support solution and others were given a control substance.

Flickers of life

The results were astonishing: the brains that received the artificial blood had basic cell function restored. Their blood vessel structure was revived, and the team even observed some localised processes -- including in synapses and immune responses -- flickering back to life.

Those that received the control solution turned within hours to what researchers described as "something a bit like yoghurt".

"I was tremendously surprised," Nenad Sestan, a researcher at Yale University and lead study author told AFP.

"We were surprised how well the structure was preserved. We found that cell death is reduced, which is very exciting and promising.

The findings suggest that brain cells and arteries remain functional for hours 

after death (AFP Photo/Fred TANNEAU)

"The main conceptual finding is this: cell death in the brain occurs across a longer time period than we previously thought," Sestan added.

The team stressed that they saw no "higher level functional activity" such as electric signalling associated with consciousness in the revived brains.

"That is a clinical sign that the brain is alive, and we never found it," said Sestan. "This is not a living brain, it is a cellularly active brain."

Had any such activity been detected, the team said they would have had to deliver anaesthetic to the brains to null any pain -- despite them having been dead for hours.

"If some activity shows up that indicated consciousness, we would have to stop the experiment," said Stephen Latham, from Yale's Centre of Bioethics.

"This would be unique: inducing consciousness in an organ that's not connected to any living being."

'Not alive, not dead'

The findings suggest that scientists may have underappreciated the brain's capacity for self-restoration after a patient is declared brain dead.

But for experts invited to comment on the study, it raised deeper philosophical and ethical questions.

Writing in a linked editorial, Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University, said that the study "throws into question long-standing assumptions over what makes an animal -- or a human -- alive."

She said researchers had inadvertently created an ethical grey area where the pigs used were "not alive, but not completely dead."

Dominic Wilkinson, professor of medical ethics at the University of Oxford, said that the study could have vital implications for future brain research.

"This research reminds us that 'death' is less an event, and more of a process that occurs over time," he said.

"Cells within the human organism may be alive for some period of time after the human person has died."

Zvonimir Vrselja, also at Yale School of Medicine's Department of Neuroscience, said the team planned to use their support system on dead brains for longer periods of time in order to see how the cells react.

"We could potentially get some insight into how these brains could be saved," he told AFP.

Related Article:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The Biggest Filter that Hinders Truth is Your Biased Knowledge

The biggest filter of humanity, the one that keeps Humans from actual truth, believe it or not, is called knowledge. We speak of that which humanity perceives currently as knowledge. That which you do not know is, therefore, future knowledge. Now, every single scientist understands the difference - every single one - for they know what is coming is going to teach them what they don't know yet. This is part of the scientific process. Even so, they take what they know, or think they know, and completely let it temper the experiments for what they don't know. They base the future on what they know or believe, even though they know better!

A medical doctor will look in the past and he'll remember being taught about a time when humans would report to the barbershop for healing. That's when they would actually bleed people for healing. By the way, that's the reason for the barber pole having the red stripe on it - it's the tradition of barbers doing the bleeding. So back then, you went to get healed in the barbershop by being bled! This, of course, led to many deaths because there was no understanding of germs, sterilization or today's common sense. Doctors know this, and they laugh at how far you all have come from this. So doctors absolutely know that what is coming will someday be actually laughable, yet they are also absolutely and completely closed to what it might be. They just think it will be an advancement of what they currently know.  ….”

“..  Medicine - Where It's Going

I want to show you some other areas to consider. There are several categories that we'd like to talk about, but they're not in a specific order except for the last one. So let's talk about medicine. What is future medicine going to look like?

The most elegant predictions of medicine fall short of what's really coming. What you have today is a high-tech approach to designer chemistry. Now, since the body is made up of chemistry, it makes sense to look at this chemistry and work with it. It makes total sense to discover how it reacts to disease and then design cures with more chemistry. It's absolutely normal what you have done, but it's going to reach an end very soon. Because the future of medicine is physics, dear ones, not chemistry.

You're going to start understanding and developing new medical physics. You will discover that medi-physics is going to literally speak to cellular structure and give it instructions, without one chemical involved. There's always a reaction to chemistry, isn't there? There's always a side effect. When you push one thing, something else reacts, doesn't it? How do you like it so far? Your most elegant chemical designs, the ones that are helping with the worst diseases on the planet, all have side effects - and some of those side effects are death! I say to you, how do you like it so far?

Does it really seem elegant to you? Or perhaps it's just a more sophisticated way of bleeding in the barbershop? Dear ones, that's how you're going to look at it someday! You're going to slap your heads and say, "Remember the day when we did everything with chemistry and drugs?"

Right now, these kinds of changes have already started in several areas. There are discoveries being made that are healing some of the most heart-breaking diseases you have. I reveal one, because it's not a secret. I will always give you information that is either being worked on or has been postulated through free choice on this planet. That is the guideline of channelling. We can't give it to you. You've got to develop it yourself. However, we can put you in an energy that has a faster discovery potential - that is to say, discoveries become more obvious.

Alzheimer's is heart breaking. There are millions on this planet who develop this condition, more all the time. You're living longer and a plaque-like material that literally obfuscates your memory within the brain is becoming more common. It clings to certain parts of your brain, encrusting and restricting it, imprisoning the Human's ability to remember and eventually process information at all. The result is death, slow death. It's caused by your environment, a fact which will be discovered eventually. Your long-lived Ancients didn't have it.

It's going to be cured with physics. Your science is starting to find out that the plaque-like substance has a resonance that allows it to be weakened with sound. High-frequency sound, tuned to a certain frequency and amplitude, will cause the sheaths to weaken, dissolve, and come off. There's a lot of research to do yet, but it's a Eureka! moment - realizing that physics alone, without chemistry, can change the structure of biology. This is with no side effects whatsoever. It's coming, it's coming.

There are those working with fresh umbilical cord stem cells right now who are using pure physics to guide the stem cells to a specific destination in the body in order to repair failing systems. Dear ones, the future of health and healing is not through better chemistry, yet medicine is still waiting for better pills! Did you connect the dots and realize that all biology is physics based? There is magnetics, leverage, the energy of consciousness, electricity and much more within cellular structure. With physics alone, you can "tune in" to disease and destroy it! You can fine-tune your system with cooperative resonances and extend life with benevolent, physical assistance. Sixteen years ago, I told you this when I spoke of the Temple of Rejuvenation. I described the super-cooling needed to do it and the temperatures needed to work with it (-55C). This is physics!

Now, the false expectation of greater chemistry for the future is totally caused from the filter of knowledge. What you have and know then gives you your expectation of what is going to take place. It literally blocks you from seeing some of the potentials that you may have.  ….”