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Scientists 
Restore Some Activity in Brains from Dead Pigs
科学家恢复死猪的大脑活动
Scientists say that the brains of animals and humans risk severe damage without blood flow and oxygen. But, researchers say they were able to restore some activity in the brains of pigs that had been killed four hours earlier.
科学家们说动物和人类的大脑如果没有血液流通和氧气就会遭受严重的损伤。但是，研究员们说他们可以恢复猪被杀四小时前的大脑活动。
Nenad Sestan of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut was one of the researchers. He said, by medical definitions, the brains were not “living brain(s).” He added that the brains could not think or sense anything.
康涅狄格州纽黑文耶鲁大学医学院的Nenad Sestan是研究者之一，他说，医学定义中大脑并不是“活着的大脑”，他补充说大脑并不能思考或感知任何事物。
The researchers, however, found that cells within brains that have lost their supply of blood and oxygen could survive longer than scientists had believed.
然而，研究者们发现，失去血液和氧气供给的大脑细胞存活的时间比科学家原认为的时间更长。
They said the research might lead to new medical treatments for stroke and other conditions. It also provides a new way to study the brain and how drugs work in it.
他们说，该项研究可能会为中风和其他疾病带来新的医学治疗方法，也为研究大脑以及药物如何在大脑中起作用提供了一种新途径。
The research was supported mostly by the National Institutes of Health and published this week in the journal Nature.
这项研究主要得到了国立卫生研究院的支持，并于本周发表在《自然》杂志上。
The 32 brains in the study came from pigs that had been killed for food. The scientists put the
brains into a device in their lab. Four hours after the animals died, they began pumping a specially designed blood substitute through the organs.
研究中的32个大脑都来自猪，它们被杀以获取猪肉。科学家们把这些大脑放到他们实验室里的装置中，在动物死后四小时，他们开始向器官中注入特殊设计的血液替代品。
After six hours, scientists found that individual brain cells in one area
of the brain had continued to keep important details of their structure. And when they sent electric signals to the brains, the cells responded in a way that showed viability.
6小时后，科学家发现大脑中一个区域的单个脑细胞继续保留着结构的重要信息。而且当他们向大脑发送电信号时，细胞会以显示活力的方式予以回应。
The scientists studied the artificial blood before and after it entered the treated brains. They found the brain cells were absorbing blood sugar and oxygen and producing carbon dioxide: a signal that they were working. They also found that blood pathways in treated brains reacted to a drug that makes them wider.
科学家们对人造血注入治疗后的大脑的前后进行了研究，他们发现脑细胞吸收血糖和氧气，并产生二氧化碳-这是它们工作的信号。他们还发现，接受治疗的大脑中的血液通路会对一种使其变宽的药物产生反应。
But, the brains did not show large amounts of activity that would be a sign of consciousness. The scientists said restoring consciousness was not the goal of the study. And they do not know whether it is possible.
但是，大脑没有显示出大量的活动，这些活动是意识的标志。科学家说恢复意识并不是该研究的目标，而且他们并不知道这是否可能实现。
The scientists said they had no plans to try their methods on human brains at this time. However, they are now looking to keep the study for longer than six hours of treatment.
科学家说他们目前还没有计划在人脑上尝试他们的方法。然而，他们现在希望持续研究6小时以上的治疗。
Christof Koch is president of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington. He did not take part in the study, but he said he was surprised by the results, especially since they came from such a large animal.
克里斯托弗·科赫是华盛顿州西雅图艾伦脑科学研究所的院长，他没有参与这项研究，却对研究结果很惊讶，尤其是因为结果来自于如此大的动物。
He said the study could increase our knowledge “to bring people back to the land of the living” after a drug overdose. He suggested it also could help with treatments for when the brain has not received enough oxygen for an hour or two.
他说，这项研究可以增加我们的知识，药物过量后“让人们回到活生生的世界”。他认为，当大脑在一两个小时内没有获得足够的氧气时，它也可以帮助治疗。
Koch said the results of the study also raised questions about the widely used definition of death – the irreversible loss of brain activity.
科赫说，该研究的结果也对广泛使用的死亡定义提出了质疑-即脑活动不可逆转的消失。
I’m Jonathan Evans.
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