‘What makes an animal alive?’: scientists revive brain function in dead pigs in breakthrough study
- Discarded brains from pigs slaughtered for food were rehydrated hours later with artificial blood
- Experts say research raises deeper philosophical and ethical questions, creates grey area where animals were ‘not alive, but not completely dead’
Scientists have managed to restore cell function in the brains of pigs hours after they died, in a breakthrough on 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.