Slashdot Log In
Suspended Animation In Mice Without Freezing
Posted by
kdawson
on Wed Mar 26, 2008 04:33 AM
from the you-will-sleep-now-and-when-you-wake dept.
from the you-will-sleep-now-and-when-you-wake dept.
Predictions Market writes "Low doses of hydrogen sulfide, the toxic gas responsible for the unpleasant odor of rotten eggs, can safely and reversibly depress both metabolism and aspects of cardiovascular function in mice, producing a suspended-animation-like state that does not depend on a reduction in body temperature and include a substantial decrease in heart rate without a drop in blood pressure. The researchers measured factors such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration, and physical activity in normal mice exposed to low-dose (80 ppm) hydrogen sulfide for several hours. In all the mice, metabolic measurements such as consumption of oxygen and production of carbon dioxide dropped in as little as 10 minutes after they began inhaling hydrogen sulfide, remained low as long as the gas was administered, and returned to normal within 30 minutes of the resumption of a normal air supply. 'Producing a reversible hypometabolic state could allow organ function to be preserved when oxygen supply is limited, such as after a traumatic injury,' says the lead author of the study. 'We don't know yet if these results will be transferable to humans, so our next step will be to study the use of hydrogen sulfide in larger mammals.' The full report is available online."
Related Stories
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
True but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:True but... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Captain: Crew we are low on hydrogen sulfide to go into suspended animation during our light speed jump.
Crew: What's that mean captain?
Captain: Well, we have to eat these burritos and then pass this jar around.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Informative)
That's actually a dangerous feature of hydrogen sulfide - it's quite poisonous and you can breath a fatal dose of it without even realizing that you're breathing a poison.
Parent
MOD PARENT UP! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Yeah but... (Score:4, Informative)
80 ppm of H2S is going to be lethal after 8 -24 hrs of exposure, much earlier you will be suffering bleeding and other very unpleasant effects.
At 500 ppm you're dead in 30 to 60 minutes and at 800 ppm you will not survive 2 minutes.
The kicker is at 1000 ppm, you're immediately unconscious and will die within seconds.
You'll start smelling it at about 0.1 ppm but at otherwise not lethal concentrations it will desensitise your nose and you will eventually not realise it's still around or getting stronger.
As a side effect it has a much wider range of explosiveness than regular hydrocarbon gasses and because it's heavier than air it will concentrate at low places.
Parent
I declare this year of the mouse! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I declare this year of the mouse! (Score:4, Funny)
Looks like we can do more for mice, than for humans
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I declare this year of the mouse! (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I declare this year of the mouse! (Score:4, Funny)
Sure mice are making strides in the educational and scientific markets, but while you mouse people have been declaring it the "year of the mouse" for the last 10 years, squirrels have continued their predatory and monopolistic domination of both business and home rodent segments.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Remember this next time you buy a curry.. (Score:4, Funny)
"All I can remember was this overpowering stink"
No, that isn't the next step (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that's not what they had in mind (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm getting the impression that this is more for rushing you to a hospital when they picked you up half-dead and bled half-dry off the side of the road.
If you're in serious shock for example, if the other mechanisms still work, the body will try to keep the brain alive, even at the cost of cutting off oxygen supply to the other internal organs. Which decay very fast. (Muscles have their own oxygen reserves, so they tend to survive, your liver doesn't.) Cells run out of oxygen and essentially commit suicide in an orderly fashion, i.e., apoptosis [wikipedia.org].
If it doesn't have enough even for the brain, which is often the case, the damage is irreversible and often fatal. Very fast.
So if they can slow your metabolism a lot, that might just give them extra time to haul you into ER. It might just turn that 5 minute rush before your brain starts getting massive damage, into, say, 50 minutes. Which might just do the trick.
I.e., briefly: it's not for colonizing Alpha Centauri, mate, it's just while they haul you to ER.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Is there any reason this can't be combined with other methods to make some form of hibernation a reality?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
still, sugar helps here i think...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd say that the Vorkosigan stories are harder sci-fi than most. Sure, you've got to allow Bujold faster-than-light travel/communications, but everything else is pretty consistent. It's a far cry from space opera, even if it doesn't have rivets. A lot of her stories revolve (indirectly) around biology, and there she's on pretty solid (if speculative) ground.
If you want to restrict "hard" sci-fi to stuff that doesn't break any laws of physics (or any other
Herbert West, Reanimator (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Baby steps...lets sleep to mars and then look to Alpha Centauri.
Keep the bodies cold (not freezing) and let them sleep the entire way to Mars.
Hook them up to a vitamin packed IV, so they don't starve. Even at their slowed rate, two years is a long time.
Admittedly we might just do periodic wake ups so they can eat, stretch their muscles, and send status reports. The rate would just depend on the safety margin of the hibernati
Re:No, that isn't the next step (Score:5, Interesting)
Just off the top of my head, mines. Mandatory pressurized bottle w/ masks at every junction in a mine, in case of collapse (I'm thinking it *has* to be less explosive than storing bottles of pure oxygen). If it slows oxygen consumption to 25% (pulled out of my ass, because examples need numbers!) of normal, that gives rescue workers 4 times a long to dig out live bodies.
Once they are out, the hospitals/trained medical professionals can go about treating them for Crush Syndrome and for the poison that kept them alive by killing them slowly.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Reducing the need to eat and drink would greatly reduce the mass of the ship. Or greatly increase the amount of supplies you had when you arrive at your destination.
thats great! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:thats great! (Score:5, Funny)
Thats OK. Large scale software projects never have conflicting requirements.
Parent
Old News (Score:5, Informative)
In 2005 it was shown that mice can be put into a state of suspended animation-like hypothermia by applying a low dosage of hydrogen sulfide (80 ppm H2S) in the air. The breathing rate of the animals sank from 120 to 10 breaths per minute and their temperature fell from 37 C to just 2 C above ambient temperature (in effect, they had become cold-blooded). The mice survived this procedure for 6 hours and afterwards showed no negative health consequences.[6] In 2006 it was shown that the blood pressure of mice treated in this fashion with hydrogen sulfide did not significantly decrease.[7]
Such a hibernation occurs naturally in many mammals and also in toads, but not in mice. (Mice can fall into a state called clinical torpor when food shortage occurs). If the H2S-induced hibernation can be made to work in humans, it could be useful in the emergency management of severely injured patients, and in the conservation of donated organs.
As mentioned above, hydrogen sulfide binds to cytochrome oxidase and thereby prevents oxygen from binding, which leads to the dramatic slowdown of metabolism. Animals and humans naturally produce some hydrogen sulfide in their body; researchers have proposed that the gas is used to regulate metabolic activity and body temperature, which would explain the above findings.[8]
However, a 2008 study failed to reproduce the effect in pigs, concluding that the effects seen in mice were not present in larger mammals. [9] [pccmjournal.com]
Re:Old News (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe pigs are just used to smelling bad?
Parent
Best cure for a suspended mouse (Score:2, Funny)
For wireless mice, check the battery level and ensure its paired correctly with its base station.
Send people to Mars or Alpha Centauri (Score:3, Insightful)
Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So does this mean... (Score:4, Funny)
prrrrtttttttttttttttt......
"Ok, who left the fart ?"
"It was me ! I wanted to prolong your lives !"
"That's a kind of frank boldness I haven't seen before...."
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I don't know about you, but whenever anyone farts nearby my metabolism slows right down and I practically stop breathing.
(of course running for the door/window is another alternative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
mere loud and long exhibitionist expulsions won't cut it, they need to *stink*. silent but deadly wins over foghorn-like showboating.
Freezing mice? (Score:2, Funny)
Cool (Score:2)
Quit getting in the way of science... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Test Site (Score:2)
I can see it now. An elevator in a high rise office building reaches the main floor. When the door opens, a car full of unconscious people is revealed. Subsequent investigation proves that the exhaust fan failed two floors below a stop on Floor 99, where the offices of the Beerf, Art & Ghasper Pickled Egg & Sausage Supply, Ltd. are located.
I think the old saying was, "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good".
Just wondering... (Score:5, Insightful)
Enough! (Score:4, Funny)
Maybe it wasn't the sermons (Score:4, Funny)
Obligatory HG2G (Score:3, Funny)