The countdown begins when the heart stops beating and blood flow. Actually countdown. The lack of oxygen and nutrients triggers a series of physiological reactions that inexorably result in cell death. Brutal? There is a question: the long struggle of people against death has one of the greatest goals in the recovery of dead tissue.

And today’s news is that we’ve taken a truly incredible step to get there.

Decades of progress that few know. Because yes, in recent years (with an eye towards increasing availability for transplants) we have been developing techniques that allow us to save tissues in an increasingly advanced state. But these were very limited victories: to preserve certain tissues, to save certain organs. At least until now.

How to save the whole body? Nenad Sestan’s team decided to adapt one of these partial technologies (called BrainEx) that demonstrated the ability to restore certain functions in pigs’ brains hours after death. The basic logic is, if the technique has been successful on cells as sensitive as nerve cells, why not try it all over the body?

They called it OrganEx and it consists of connecting a pumping system to the circulatory system, which introduces a fluid loaded with factors into the body to counter the metabolic and electrolyte imbalances triggered by the interruption of blood flow. Applying the technique to pigs one hour after cardiac arrest, they found that OrganEx “maintains tissue integrity, reduces cell death, and restores selected molecular and cellular processes in multiple vital organs (such as the heart, brain, liver, and kidneys).”

OrganEx-treated organs not only showed less bleeding and swelling than tissues treated with conventional methods. They also observed “specific gene expression patterns (both at the cellular and organ level) that indicate that repair processes are taking place in the body.”

common sense and hope. It is not necessary to start the chimes instantly, the technique is in its infancy, although it has a positive history. To fully understand where this is taking us, we need more time to explore and develop. We are not very close to the “Resurrection”, but we are taking important steps to increase the number of organs available.

** **. And that in itself is great news. Suffice it to remember that in Spain around 52,000 people are currently waiting for a kidney transplant and what is truly alarming is that for every transplant performed, two people are diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. Dynamics like this can be found in all transplantable organs: any step forward is a step for the better.