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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9321