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Chemical Cocktail Can Keep a Heart Viable 10 Days, Outside the Body

Posted by timothy on from the with-very-few-exceptions-not-a-worm dept.

nj_peeps writes "Harvard professor Hemant Thatte has developed a cocktail of 21 chemical compounds that he calls Somah, derived from the Sanskrit for 'ambrosia of rejuvenation.' Using Somah, Thatte and his team have accomplished some amazing feats with pig hearts. They can keep the organ viable for transplant up to 10 days after harvest — far longer than the four-hour limit seen in hospitals today. Not only that, but using low temperatures and Somah, they were able to take a pig heart that was removed post mortem and get it to beat 24 hours later in the lab."

2 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Re:As a biologist let me say... by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Neato. If this could be applied to human hearts, this could significantly open the options organ recipients have to save their lives.

    I'm more interested in how this will effect the international market for organs.
    Usually you have to go there, or the donor has to come here.
    But if this translates to human physiology, organ trafficking will become a real problem.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  2. Re:As a biologist let me say... by MartinSchou · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And faster cars make it easier for criminals to get away from crime scenes.
    And cash make it easier for criminals to hide their tracks.
    And RFID embedded into the underside of the skull at birth would make it easier to track down criminals later in life.

    A lot of the technology we have available or will develop in the foreseeable future has the potential to be used in bad ways. That doesn't mean we should stop developing them.