Scientists revive dead pig cells and organs

This is considered a breakthrough in research that has forced experts to think we need to update our definition of death.

According to AFP news agency, this discovery also raises hopes for a series of future medical applications for humans. In the short term, the application can help organs last longer and potentially save the lives of thousands of people worldwide who need transplants.

However, the results also raised a debate about the ethics of the research - especially after some pigs that appeared dead startled scientists when they moved during the experiment.

Previously, in 2019, this research team working in the US stunned the scientific community when they found a way to restore cell function in the brains of pigs a few hours after they were decapitated.

For the latest study, published in the journal Nature, the team extended the technique to the entire body.

Researchers created a heart attack mechanism in anesthetized pigs. As a result, blood stopped flowing through the body and did not provide oxygen to cells. This meant that these pigs died within an hour.

The scientists then infused the animal's body with a fluid containing the animal's own blood, as well as a synthetic form of hemoglobin — the oxygen-carrying protein in red blood cells — and drugs that protect the cells and prevent blood clotting.

Blood began to circulate again and many cells began to function including vital organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys over the next 6 hours of the experiment.

“These cells resumed function within hours of being shut down, which shows us that cell death can be halted,” explains Nenad Sestan, lead author of the study and a PhD student at Yale University.

Meanwhile, co-lead author of the study, David Andrijevic, hopes the new technique, called OrganEx, could be used to save organs.

“This technique could also be used to save people’s lives. However, it could increase the risk of putting patients in a state where they cannot survive without medical support,” Brendan Parent, a bioethicist at the University of Michigan’s Grossman School of Medicine, wrote in an article published in Nature.

According to researcher Sam Parnia - Grossmand University of Pharmacy, this study shows that death is not clearly defined as either black or white, but it is a biological process that can be treated and reversed within hours after death occurs.

Benjamin Curtis, a moral philosopher at the UK's Nottingham Trent University, said the definition of death needed updating because it hinges on the concept of irreversibility.

“This study shows that many processes that we think are irreversible are not. Therefore, the current medical definition of death needs to change. A person may not actually be dead for several hours after the body functions stop. If so, there may be bodies in the morgue that are not dead,” Curtis said.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper