The technique of head transplantation has been worked out on mice
Chinese professor transplanted the heads of a thousand mice
Surgeon Xiaoping Ren from Harbin Medical University in China is conducting experiments on head transplantation, writes The Wall Street Journal (Surgery's Far Frontier: Head Transplants). Now the professor is operating on mice, this summer he plans to switch to monkeys and admits the possibility of such an operation for humans.
Over two years, Xiaoping Ren and his team operated on more than 1,000 mice, transplanting the head of one animal onto the donor body of another. After the operation, the animals can breathe and move. Ren's work, unlike his colleagues from other institutes, was approved by the Ethics Council and received several grants totaling 10 million yuan (about $ 1.6 million).
The operation goes like this: first, the head is separated with a sharp blade, then the spinal nerves of the head and the new body are connected under a microscope, "fastening" them with polyethylene glycol – a very strong substance that is also used in rocket fuel. Then the vertebrae of the head and the new body are connected using pins, screws and metal plates. After that, the blood vessels are connected, and then the muscles and skin.
Surgery’s Far Frontier: Head Transplants from Max Duncan on Vimeo.
In the experiment, Dr. Ren and his colleagues adhere to the belief that, although the brain and spinal cord have a huge number of nerve tissues in common, it is enough to connect only a small fraction of them. Now, during the operation, 10-20% of the spinal nerves are connected – this is enough for breathing and controlling the main functions of the body. But in order to start operating on people, according to the expert, this figure should be higher.
(Article by Xiao-Ping Ren et al. Allogeneic Head and Body Reconstruction: Mouse Model published in the journal CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics – VM.)
A Chinese surgeon plans to apply his surgical skills to monkeys this summer, hoping to create the first primate with a transplanted head that can breathe and maintain basic vital functions.
Dr. Ren does not undertake to predict when he will be able to try out a transplant on a person. Earlier, Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero said that in two years he would be ready to transplant a human head onto a donor body. A volunteer, Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov, has already been found for Dr. Canavero's experiment. Dr. Ren said he agreed to help Canavero with animal experiments.
It is believed that a head transplant will help people with an intact brain, but a severely damaged body. At the same time, such a transplant raises many ethical questions. So, some scientists consider this operation an adventure, and the church sees in it a danger to the spiritual state of a person.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru08.06.2015