Preserving the brain perfectly with vitrification

American researchers successfully preserved frozen rabbit brains, opening up the prospect of applying techniques to larger mammals.

International Business Times reported on February 10, Robert McIntyre, head of the research team at 21st Century Medicine, USA, said they used a combination of frozen preservatives called Aldehyde Stabilized Cryopreservation (ASC). .

To show the feasibility of ASC, McIntyre and colleagues transferred glutaraldehyde with fixed concentration to the rabbit or pig brain. After that, they passed slowly ethylene glycol with increasing concentration for several hours.

The rabbit brain is perfectly preserved.(Photo: The Huffington Post).

When ethylene glycol reaches the appropriate level, the brain is frozen at -135 degrees C for long-term storage. Next, the brain is warmed again to assess signs of damage.

"Neurons and synapses on the whole brain are very well preserved. I was surprised to have a brain similar to when it was solidified by glass , " said Kenneth Hayworth, chairman of the Brain Conservation Fund. , share.

" ASC has many advantages compared to other brain conservation techniques : chemicals are introduced into the brain through transfusion methods, making it easy to adjust to different size brains. Freezing by vitrification Make sure the brain structure is not damaged for a long time, at the same time, frozen preservatives can be removed, "the team said.

According to scientists, this technique could be applied to the preservation of larger mammals, such as cows and primates, for long periods of time. However, the preservation of human brain can be difficult, because the brain bank only receives the brain after many hours of death.

Scientists in frozen engineering are looking for ways to preserve not only the brain, but also the memories stored by the brain. They hope to be able to preserve patients for a long time until they wake up in the future and are treated with breakthroughs in medicine.