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Pig experiment challenges assumptions around brain damage in people

The restoration of some structures and cellular functions in pig brains hours after death could intensify debates about when human organs should be removed for transplantation, warn Stuart Youngner and Insoo Hyun.
  1. Stuart Youngner

    1. Stuart Youngner is a professor of bioethics and psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

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  2. Insoo Hyun

    1. Insoo Hyun is a professor of bioethics and philosophy at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

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Surgeons extract the liver and kidneys of a brain-dead woman.

Surgeons in Berlin operate on a woman who has been declared brain dead to remove her liver and kidneys for transplantation. Credit: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

In this week’s Nature, researchers describe restoring certain structural and functional properties to pigs’ brains, even four hours after the animals had been killed1. They used an artificial perfusion system called BrainEx.

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Nature 568, 302-304 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01169-8

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