Experts from the Organ Transplant Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, in collaboration with an international team, recently published a report as a cover article in the international journal "Molecular Medicine of the European Molecular Biology Organization". The report reveals that they successfully "revived" a decapitated pig brain that had been "dead" for minutes using the internationally pioneering "ex vivo brain maintenance technology".

Severe brain injury often occurs in patients with cardiac arrest, which is a major cause of death. Previous studies suggested that the brain can only tolerate ischemic damage for up to minutes, leading to extremely low survival rates in cardiac arrest patients.

This study used pigs as experimental subjects, first inducing cardiac arrest and then separating their brains from their bodies. Minutes later, researchers connected the isolated brain to an extracorporeal life support device via tubes, forming a system to support brain revival. The results showed that the pig brain was successfully "revived," capable of restoring brain function and maintaining vitality for a certain period. The research team actively terminated the experiment after several hours.

This set of equipment employs the team's independently developed "Ex Vivo Brain Maintenance Technology," which not only includes artificial heart and lung components but also utilizes blood perfusion technology at normal body temperature to maintain a living pig liver, providing the ex vivo pig brain connected to the device with fresh, oxygenated, and metabolically stable blood circulation.

Research indicates that under the support of a simple cardiopulmonary resuscitation system, significant brain edema occurs in isolated brains, with a marked decline in neuronal viability and gradual disappearance of brain electrophysiological activity. In contrast, under the support of an extracorporeal cardiopulmonary-liver composite life support system, brain edema in isolated brains is significantly reduced, neuronal viability and cellular microstructure are notably improved, and brain electrical activity can be restored and maintained.

This study, led by He Xiaoshun, director of the Organ Transplantation Center at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, and involving scientists such as Björn Nashan, former president of the German Transplantation Society, and Andrea Schlegel, an expert from the Center for Inflammation and Immunity at the Cleveland Clinic, indicates that the liver plays a crucial role in the repair mechanism of brain injury following cardiac arrest.

He Xiaoshun stated that this research achievement provides a new strategy for resuscitation from cardiac arrest, with the potential to improve the success rate of rescuing patients with cardiac arrest in the future, and offers a new platform for brain science research.