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Japanese brain transplants in Rats
Posted by boadaddy on December 03, 2002 at 20:16:29:
Very gross...
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TRANSPLANT SUCCESSFUL
Rat's brain grows in another's thigh
A team of Japanese scientists has succeeded in transplanting the brain of a baby rat into the thigh of an adult rat and growing it there.
The experiment was led by Nobufumi Kawai and Kuniko Shimazaki of Jichi Medical School in Tochigi Prefecture. It was conducted in large part to see how long brain tissue can survive after its blood supply is cut.
It took the team about 90 minutes to graft the baby's brain into the adult. The organ survived and its neurological functions developed afterward, they said.
It is commonly believed that brain tissue dies quickly after the blood supply is cut off.
The experiment consisted of the team surgically removing the head of a 12-day-old rat and connecting its blood vessels to those in the thigh of the adult. The brain grew and the baby's mouth even moved as if trying to drink milk, they said.
The study showed the importance of keeping the room temperature low for the transplant. While an experiment carried out in a 29-degree room resulted in failure, another in a 19-degree room was successful, according to the team.
"The finding that a transplant is possible if the brain is cooled helps add a reference to brain surgery," Kawai, a professor emeritus of the school, said.
The Japan Times: Dec. 2, 2002