Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Scientists Restore Cellular Activity In Brains Of Slaughtered Pigs, Blurring Previously Distinct Line Between 'Alive' And 'Dead'
The New York Times: ‘Partly Alive’: Scientists Revive Cells In Brains From Dead Pigs
The brains did not regain anything resembling consciousness: There were no signs indicating coordinated electrical signaling, necessary for higher functions like awareness and intelligence. But in an experimental treatment, blood vessels in the pigs’ brains began functioning, flowing with a blood substitute, and certain brain cells regained metabolic activity, even responding to drugs. When the researchers tested slices of treated brain tissue, they discovered electrical activity in some neurons. (Kolata, 4/17)
The Associated Press: Scientists Spur Some Activity In Brains Of Slaughtered Pigs
Scientists restored some activity within the brains of pigs that had been slaughtered hours before, raising hopes for some medical advances and questions about the definition of death. The brains could not think or sense anything, researchers stressed. By medical standards "this is not a living brain," said Nenad Sestan of the Yale School of Medicine, one of the researchers reporting the results Wednesday in the journal Nature. But the work revealed a surprising degree of resilience among cells within a brain that has lost its supply of blood and oxygen, he said. (Ritter, 4/17)
Reuters: Yale Study Revives Cellular Activity In Pig Brains Hours After Death
The scientists emphasized that their work did not even come close to reawakening consciousness in the disembodied pig brains. In fact the experiment was specifically designed to avoid such an outcome, however improbable. Still, the study raises a host of bioethical issues, including questions about the very definition of brain death and potential consequences for protocols related to organ donation. (Gorman, 4/17)
The Wall Street Journal: Scientists Restore Some Brain Function After Death In Animal Experiments
The science is still a very long way from having applications in human brains, and the findings in no way suggest the brain was alive, the research team and other scientists stressed. “This is not a living brain, but it is a cellularly active brain,” said Yale neuroscientist Nenad Sestan, who led the study. Still, the results could open up new avenues of study into brain function and how drugs affect it, potentially improving drug development for conditions like dementia or stroke that have for decades stumped the pharmaceutical industry, brain experts said. It also could have future implications for organ donation, forcing the medical community to re-evaluate when it’s appropriate to take organs for transplants, experts said. (Hernandez, 4/17)
NPR: Pig Brains Partly Revived By Scientists Hours After Animals Died
The potential ethical questions raised by this research range from how to protect animal welfare to how it might affect organ donation from people declared brain-dead. "The science is so new that we all need to work together to think proactively about its ethical implications so that we can responsibly shape how this science moves forward," says Khara Ramos, director of the neuroethics program at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (Greenfieldboyce, 4/17)
Stat: Scientists Restore Cellular Functions In Brains From Dead Pigs
Andrea Beckel-Mitchener of the National Institute of Mental Health called the technology “a real breakthrough for brain research.” Restoring any cell function “has never been done before” in a large, supposedly dead, mammalian brain, she said. By keeping cells alive and working, she added, the system promises to let scientists study complex circuit connections “and functions that are lost when specimens are preserved in other ways.” Neither isolated brain cells grown in culture nor slices of post-mortem brain tissue reveal much about the neural circuitry and activity that underlies thinking, for instance. (Begley, 4/17)
