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Researchers isolate a pig's brain from it's body, keeping it alive and functioning for several hours (www.popularmechanics.com)

submitted 9 months ago by Gaywallet@beehaw.org to c/science@beehaw.org

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[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 41 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

Researchers were able to isolate blood flow to the brain

could also help researchers design improved machines for human cardiopulmonary bypass that better replicate natural blood flow to the brain.

They didn't separate the brain from the body, only made a brain blood bypass.

Guess that wouldn't've made for a sensational enough title.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oh sure ... all media is likely some form of garbage, especially when it comes to anything other than the main text.

But a blood bypass would surely be the first major and critical step to isolating a brain from the whole body, except for cranial nerves and spinal cord of course, depending on what purpose anyone has for this. I'm presuming there's some advantage that could be had in certain surgical procedures.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

I guess it could already allow full body transplants for tetraplegic patients... I mean, if they have no muscle control, and get a brain-dead donor, they have nothing to lose and might live who knows how much longer.

Probably a step farther, would be spinal nerve reconstruction, or using stuff like a brain implant to reconnect to the new body. Bridging nerve gaps is one of the first goals, and Neuralink's first human tests are to be performed precisely on tetraplegic patients, so the two might be a good fit.

The article mentions an improved way to maintain blood flow to the isolated part, so that would be beneficial for all surgeries that need isolation (like heart surgery).

Of course the "pump random drugs only to the brain and see how it reacts", is also interesting, just not as sensationalist... and they could even eat the rest of the pig afterwards, if the test drugs don't make it there.

[–] Faydaikin@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago

That is both fascinating and terrifying at once.

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

You missed part of the quote

Researchers were able to isolate blood flow to the brain, separate that brain from the rest of the body, and use a new device to keep the brain alive and functioning.

[–] Lowbird@beehaw.org 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

The article does say that, but the source paper the article links to says this in the Abstract:

Thus, we set out to mechanically render cerebral hemodynamics fully regulable to replicate or modify native pig brain perfusion. To this end, blood flow to the head was surgically separated from the systemic circulation and full extracorporeal pulsatile circulatory control (EPCC) was delivered via a modified aorta or brachiocephalic artery. This control relied on a computerized algorithm that maintained, for several hours, blood pressure, flow and pulsatility at near-native values individually measured before EPCC. Continuous electrocorticography and brain depth electrode recordings were used to evaluate brain activity relative to the standard offered by awake human electrocorticography. Under EPCC, this activity remained unaltered or minimally perturbed compared to the native circulation state, as did cerebral oxygenation, pressure, temperature and microscopic structure. Thus, our approach enables the study of neural activity and its circulatory manipulation in independence of most of the rest of the organism.

And nothing whatsoever about physically removing the brain from the body. It's teeechnically separated from the body's circulatory system - with the experimental, artificial connection replacing the natural one between tthe body's circulatory system and the brain's blood flow - but that really seems to be it.

The article is extremely misleading and only barely connected to the actual study, in short.

I'm personally gonna add Popular Mechanics to my internal list of pop sci rags that can't be trusted.

[–] I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago

Ah, thank you. I did not read the original source.

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago

Are you sure? Based on the article, how exactly did they "separate" it?

[–] drwho@beehaw.org 2 points 9 months ago

Could've been the journo. Could've been one of the editors.

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I wonder if that has implications for drug application... from my memory I believe a common challenge for brain diseases is that most drugs cannot cross the BBB, but if they've made a bypass...

[–] jarfil@beehaw.org 8 points 9 months ago

It's a blood vessel bypass to the whole brain, the BBB is between blood vessels inside the brain and brain tissue.

The implication for drugs, is in drug research: normally a drug will get spread all over the body, particularly passing through the liver, which metabolizes all it can, followed by the kidneys, which piss out all they can... so it isn't easy to estimate how much of a given drug actually gets to the brain.

With a bypass, they can inject drugs directly into the brain, and see how they work without "interference" from the rest of the body.