Chemical Cocktail Can Keep a Heart Viable 10 Days, Outside the Body 97
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."
Re:Another overblown statements in TFS today... (Score:1, Informative)
You should have n^2 hot chicks! Just rinse and repeat.
Here's what's in it (Score:5, Informative)
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 [slashdot.org]
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
Re:Here's what's in it (Score:1, Informative)
Distilled water, Calcium chloride, Potassium chloride, Potassium phosphate (monobasic), Magnesium chloride (hexahydrate), Magnesium sulfate, (heptahydrate), Sodium chloride, Sodium bicarbonate, Sodium phosphate, (dibasic; heptahydrate), d-Glucose, Glutathione (reduced), Ascorbic acid, l-Arginine, l-Citrulline malate, Adenosine, Creatine orotate, Creatine monohydrate, l-Carnosine, l-Carnitine, Dichloroacetate, Insulin ...
You forgot crushed red pepper, and dill.
Re:Ringer's solution? (Score:3, Informative)
Ringer's solution is just Na, Cl, K, Ca in water. Oh, and lactate. So, the only commonality is 4 ions. And not even the same sugar. No, it's nowhere NEAR a tweaked Ringer's solution...
Re:Here's what's in it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hydrogen Sulfide (Score:4, Informative)
Along with research done by Mark Roth with H2S, this could save lots of people.
What's with the mods today? What exactly is redundant about this? Mark Roth [fhcrc.org] is working about suspended animation using controlled oxygen depletion with H2S and CO, work which has shown quite some promise in various animal models. Interesting stuff that is completely on topic. The main problem with suspended animation, be it of whole organisms or of tissues, is oxygen damage. Mark Roth depletes the oxygen in a controlled manner, the work cited in TFA is based on adding dichloroacetate, which has been shown to prevent ischemic damage in tissue. Not sure how the two would complement each other, as I am not much of a metabolism guy. Anyway, someone mod up the parent, that downmod is undeserved.