X-Message-Number: 8966 From: (Randy Smith) Subject: Anyone know about this? Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 02:10:06 GMT BRITAIN<Picture: Line> =46rom the latest Sunday London Times: >BRITAIN<Picture: Line> > > > > >Frozen baboons returned to life=20 > > >by Lois Rogers=20 >Medical Correspondent=20 > > > > > > >SCIENTISTS have unlocked the secret of suspended animation by successfully reviving baboons hours after their bodies were packed into = crates of ice.=20 Yes, but at what temp? This has already been done, hasn't it? > >The breakthrough, which holds huge implications for the battle against disease and ageing, will allow humans to preserve their ice-cold bodies = in suspended animation and wake up years later in the same physical condition.=20 > >It has aroused the interest of space scientists investigating the possibility of interstellar travel, allowing human exploration of = galaxies many light years away.=20 I woonder why no quotes? > >Military clinicians are also attracted by the prospect of allowing critically injured troops to be near-frozen on the battlefield and = preserved for later treatment.=20 > >The key to the technology is Hextend, a revolutionary plasma replacement fluid which is poured into the body through a vein in the upper thigh as= blood is drained and the anaesthetised body is cooled to 1C. As the clear fluid permeates the tissues, it prevents the deterioration caused = by extreme lowering of body temperature.=20 > >The results from the baboon studies, carried out at Biotime, a California research company, were announced at the annual meeting of the = American Association of Anti-Ageing Medicine.=20 > >Hal Sternberg, Biotime's head of research, said work on the mechanisms of animal hibernation had provided much of the basic information on = suspended animation.=20 > >One type of North American frog can partially freeze its body while it shuts down during the winter months. Hamsters have been kept alive at = 1-2C with no heartbeat in Biotime laboratories for up to seven hours before being successfully rewarmed.=20 > >The long-term objective is to add freeze-protectant chemicals to the Hextend solution so human bodies can be stored at -196C, the temperature = of liquid nitrogen. The principal barrier, however, is popular opinion.=20 > >"It is like the public attitude to early organ transplants," said Sternberg. "Although everyone will love us when we announce we have = reversibly frozen a human being, at the moment this area is not considered socially acceptable.=20 > >"There is a limit to how far people think you should go to save a life: but we already have children being born from frozen embryos. If you are = extending the beginning of life, why shouldn't you also extend it later on?"=20 > >Sternberg and his colleagues expect to use their new techniques to put themselves into long-term hibernation while they await the development of= life-extending techniques to cure and prevent cancer, heart failure and Alzheimer's disease.=20 > >Doctors believe the technique can immediately be used in complex surgery, where best results can be obtained by cooling the body to a = level which would otherwise cause brain damage.=20 > >Clinical trials of Hextend led by Michael Mythen, a consultant anaesthetist who worked on the project in America, are to begin at = University College hospital, London, this year.=20 > >It will be used in complex orthopaedic, gynaecological and stomach operations where there is a danger of catastrophic blood loss and where = better results can be obtained at low temperatures.=20 > >Kelvin Brockbank, a British-born scientist in South Carolina who has received funding from the American government for his research work in = the allied field of preserving transplant organs, said deep-freezing of human tissue would be possible within a year. "There will be a whole = range of applications for the technology," he said. "It will be up to people to decide how to use them."=20 Randy Smith Cryonics: Gateway to the Future? http://members.wbs.net/homepages/c/r/y/cryofan1.html **************************************************** Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8966