X-Message-Number: 30353
From: 
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:32:30 EST
Subject: Brain state after 24 hours

A while back I remarked that at the Ft. Lauderdale conference Dr F. had  

reported the fine structure of a rabbit brain looked very bad after 24 hours in
organ preservation solution at around 0 C. Since this is essentially the 
service  SA offers, and the best anybody can do if we deanimate far from CI or 
Alcor, I  suggested it was much better to go to Michigan or Arizona at the end.
 
Others thought this was incorrect, but without the DVD there was no way to  
check. Well, I have reviewed the DVD now, and indeed I was off. Dr. F did  say 
the brains looked bad, but after discussing this in some detail he said  this 
was due to the way they perfused the fixative. In other words, it was  an 
artifact of the way they prepared the sample, and when they changed that the  
brain structure looked OK. I'm sorry for my mistake.
 
However, at the end of that discussion, F showed a graph of brain  electrical 
activity, showing that at 24 hours it was just half what it was at  time 
zero. He took the position that this was good and the glass was half full.  I 
agree this is promising, but I would take the conservative position  that the 

glass is half empty, and it would be much better to  start at time zero when 
it's 
completely full. Also, if we extrapolate to 48  hours, we would expect 

activity to be zero. And many patients come in two days  or more post mortem. 
With SA 
on standby that might be improved of course, but it  is still likely to be 24 
hours plus.
 
So my conclusion is that I was wrong about Dr. F's conclusions on  structure, 
but it's still better to deanimate next to CI or Alcor.  If you  have your 
druthers...
 
 
Alan Mole



**************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music.     


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