X-Message-Number: 9321
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 00:30:36 -0500 (EST)
From: "Kevin Q. Brown" <>
Subject: Lithium Reduces Ischemic Injury?

Page 165 of the March 14, 1998 issue of Science News has the article:
    "Stimulating clue hints how lithium works"

Of interest to cryonicists:

  "... Chuang and his colleagues have found that lithium protects
   brain cells from being stimulated to death by glutamate, one
   of the many chemicals that transmit messages in the brain."

and:

  "Normally, activation of the NMDA receptor by glutamate triggers
   an influx of calcium ions, setting off a signalling cascade
   inside cells.  However, cells soaked in lithium for a week let
   in far less calcium when exposed to glutamate."

Current cryopreservation procedures apply numerous drugs, _after_
pronouncement of death, for reducing ischemic injury due to this
glutamate / NMDA receptor cascade.  Should a week or more of
PRE-mortem treatment with Lithium be part of the protocol for
terminal cryonics patients?

    Kevin Q. Brown
    

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