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Chemical Cocktail Can Keep a Heart Viable 10 Days, Outside the Body
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."
That's Fronken-shteen, you insensitive clod!
Neato. If this could be applied to human hearts, this could significantly open the options organ recipients have to save their lives. Perhaps even expand what kind of medical procedures that could be done on the human heart that may be limited by how long the heart can be kept viable outside the body.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Why would the gender of the heart donors matter?
The question is, why wouldn't it? Do you know? I don't. Are you saying scientists should be less observant, record fewer details, ignore more facts? You might as well ask "Why bother mentioning that they were pig hearts, what would it matter?"
Are you offended at the obvious sexism inherent in the selection of two female pig hearts? Bothered by the fact that reality may not be politically correct?
How does this affect bacon?
Because that's what's really important.
Bacon.
As Stephen King once claimed, "I seem monstrous to some, but I have the heart of a child.
I keep it in a jar, on my desk..."
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
The chicken heart was kept alive, in a laboratory in a vat. Special solution: half blood, half sodium-salycilate.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
I would imagine commercial interests? They may want to keep such things hidden from other research teams until they are themselves published or secured patents?
One can also never rule out intentional hype prior to proven facts. Like this liquid i have here with 500 compounds in it, I neglect to mention all the rocks and dirt i just threw into a glass of water.
From the paper it's a modification of something called GALA solution.
Compenent mmol/L g/L
Distilled water, L 1.00
Calcium chloride 1.30 0.191
Potassium chloride 7.00 0.522
Potassium phosphate (monobasic) 0.44 0.060
Magnesium chloride (hexahydrate) 0.50 0.101
Magnesium sulfate (heptahydrate) 0.50 0.123
Sodium chloride 125.00 7.31
Sodium bicarbonate 5.00 0.420
Sodium phosphate (dibasic; heptahydrate) 0.19 0.05
d-Glucose 11.00 1.982
Glutathione (reduced) 1.50 0.461
Ascorbic acid 1.00 0.176
l-Arginine 5.00 1.073
l-Citrulline malate 1.00 0.175
Adenosine 2.00 0.534
Creatine orotate 0.50 0.274
Creatine monohydrate 2.00 0.298
l-Carnosine 10.00 2.26
l-Carnitine 10.00 2.00
Dichloroacetate 0.50 0.075
Insulin 10 mg/mL, mL/L 1.00
pH is adjusted to 7.5 with sodium bicarbonate or Tris-hydroxymethyl aminomethane at desired temperature.
Bunch of salts.
These aren't complex proteinaceous molecules. I am interested in the presence of dichloroacetate because that was the anti-cancer molecule reported
by slashdot just yesterday.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/05/13/2117203
Now all you hackers planning to preserve human hearts don't you use this formula without citing the good Doctor Thatte.
Please mod me up for my chemical knowhow
Along with research done by Mark Roth with H2S, this could save lots of people.