X-Message-Number: 16549
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 04:30:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Driven FromThePack <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #16536 - #16548

Someone wrote:
 "        Roth's next goal is to figure out the
molecular pathways that
         permit this recovery and why some vertebrates
can survive a
         lack of oxygen - or other forms of extreme
stress - and why
         others can't. "In the case of heart disease,
humans typically die
         of a failure to get enough oxygen to cells,"
he said. "Cells
         deprived of oxygen for too long, particularly
brain cells,
typically
         undergo apoptosis - a form of cell suicide.
If that happens and
         you live, you suffer from brain damage." 
----------

  Now hold on! This article starts off talking about
how a little girl was brought back from the dead after
2 hours at temps somewhere around zero. Then there is
this bit above about heart disease and cell apoptosis.

Correct me if I am wrong, but as I understand it from
previous cryonet discussions, the mechanisms that
allowed the little girl to survive had nothing to do
with preventing cell apoptosis. When a person dies at
low temps, and then is later revived, the reasons why
he/she can be revived has nothing to do with cell
apoptosis, but instead with the inhibtion of certain
chemical reactions which in ordinary cases of death at
other temperatures and conditions, cause the clogging
of certain ion channels in the brain; this clogging of
ion channels is what causes a person who has been
revived after being dead for more than 10 minutes or
so, to often be brain damaged. The effects of cell
apoptosis do not begin taking a significant toll until
several hours (perhaps 24 hours or so). The little
girl was not yet in danger of cell apoptosis. 

Am I correct? Is this article completely off base?



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