An Italian neuroscientist who desire to perform the humankind ’s first human head transplant next year is claiming to have conducted radical spinal cord experiment on black eye , rats , and a andiron . Experts say the upshot are vague and incomplete , and that talk of human nous transplants are grossly premature .
In a series of papers publish in Surgical Neurology International , brain surgeon Sergio Canavero key out recent experiment using a chemical substance anticipate polyethylene glycol , or PEG , which his team is using to reconnect severely damaged spinal cords . Accompanying video recording showsa mouse drag itself across the storey , anda ratanddogin various stage of retrieval .
In one of the experimentation , Canavero , with the help of C - Yoon Kim from Konkuk University in Seoul , sever the spinal cord of 16 mice . PEG was injected into the hurt field of half of the mice , while the other half receive a saline result . Four weeks after the operating room , five of the eight black eye in the PEG chemical group had regained some mobility , while the other three go . None of the mouse in the control group were able-bodied to move afterwards . The chemical substance work by reconnecting the two fused ends of the spinal corduroy — a punctilious healing appendage that call for thousands of neurons .
In a 2d experimentation with similar results , crumb were given a juiced - up version of PEG that uses graphene nanoribbons — an electrically conductive fabric — that serves as a scaffold along which neuron can grow . regrettably , the results of this experiment were uncompleted because a flowage in the lab kill four of the five rats handle with new - and - improved PEG .
For the experiment on the cad , the researchers lop about 90 percentage of its spinal cord . Two calendar week after , the dog was able to drag in its hind ramification , and after the third hebdomad it was able to take the air , grab object , and wag its tail . No other dog was try out on , which means there were no controls . This was fundamentally a undivided shell report .
But as New Scientistreports , experts are n’t print by the experiments , quetch about the small sample size , the absence seizure of controller in the domestic dog experiment , and insufficient evidence bear witness that the canine ’s spinal cord was damaged to the degree reported .
These expostulation are serious give thatCanavero wants to perform a human head transplantation next year . ARussian human being suffering from a degenerative disease has already volunteered for the routine , and a infirmary in Vietnam has said it ’ll make its adeptness available for the controversial surgery . Assuming it chance .
Despite these recent animal field , there ’s no compelling grounds to believe that a human head transplant will work , or that it ’ll endow the Russian patient with a body that ’s superior or longer - endure than the one he currently has . Earlier this year , the same squad reportedly performed a head transplantation on a scallywag , but the results were n’t published .
https://gizmodo.com/scientists-claim-to-perform-head-transplant-on-monkey-1753832758
Given the inexplicably short timeline that these research worker have imposed upon themselves , it ’s clear they ’re rushing into this . Realistically , it takes about a decade or more for lab experimentation to translate into actual recitation . If these maverick researchers are n’t careful , they could actually down this heroic unseasoned man .
[ Surgical Neurology InternationalI , II , III , IV , New Scientist ]
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