The technology holds great promise for our ability to preserve organs after harvesting them from a donor, the researchers say.
The researchers stress that possible additional studies will be needed to understand the apparent restoration of motor functions in the animals. Photo: Shutterstock.
This shocking study could change the dynamics of blood donation organsas indicated by the authors among their results published in the journal Nature, where they add that prolonging the life of these organsexpands the availability of organs of donors.
It is about a team of scientists from Yale University (United States) who developed a new technology that supplies a protective liquid for cells specially designed for organs and tissues, with which they have managed to restore blood circulation and other cellular functions in pigs one hour after their death.
“All cells don’t die immediately, but rather there are a series of longer events,” explains David Andrijevic, a research associate scientist in neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and co-author of the study. “It’s a process in which you can intervene, stop and restore some cellular function.”
The research builds on an earlier Yale-led project that restored circulation and certain cellular functions in the brain of a pork killed with a technology called BrainEx. Published in 2019, the study was led by the lab of Yale’s Nenad Sestan, the Harvey and Kate Cushing Professor of Neuroscience, and Professor of Comparative Medicine, Genetics, and Psychiatry.
“If we were able to restore certain cellular functions in the dead brain, an organ known to be the most susceptible to ischemia, i.e. inadequate blood supply, we hypothesized that something similar could be achieved in other organs as well. organs transplantable vitals,” he says.
Organs were restored after treatment
In the new study, a team led by lead author Sestan — as well as colleagues Andrijevic, Zvonimir Vrselja, Taras Lysyy and Shupei Zhang, all of Yale — applied a modified version of BrainEx called OrganEx to the entire pork.
The technology consists of a perfusion device similar to extracorporeal circulation machines, which do the work of the heart and lungs during surgery, and an experimental fluid containing compounds that can promote cellular health and suppress inflammation throughout the body of the pork. Anesthetized pigs were treated with OrganEx one hour after cardiac arrest was induced.
Six hours after OrganEx treatment, scientists found that key cellular functions were active in many areas of the pigs’ bodies, including the heartliver and kidneys, and that the function of some organs. For example, they found evidence of electrical activity in the heart, which retained the ability to contract. “We were also able to restore circulation throughout the body, which surprised us,” admits Sestan.
Normally when the heart stop beating, organs they begin to swell, collapsing blood vessels and blocking circulation, he explains. However, the organs of the deceased pigs that had received the OrganEx treatment appeared functional. “Under the microscope, it was difficult to distinguish between a healthy organ and one that had been treated with OrganEx technology after death,” says Vrselja.
The researchers stress that possible additional studies will be needed to understand the apparent restoration of motor functions in the animals, and that rigorous ethical review by other scientists and bioethicists is required.
Experimental protocols were approved by the Yale Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and guided by an external ethical and advisory committee. According to the authors, the OrganEx technology could have several potential applications. For example, the treatment could prolong the lives of organs in human patients and expand the availability of organs donors for transplants. It could also be used to help treat organs or tissues damaged by ischemia during myocardial infarctions or strokes.
“There are numerous potential applications for this exciting new technology,” says Stephen Latham, director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. “However, we must maintain careful monitoring of all future studies, particularly those involving brain perfusion.”
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