Here’s another promising piece of medical news
The power of a mitochondria injection:
In animal studies at Boston Children’s Hospital and elsewhere, mitochondrial transplants revived heart muscle that was stunned from a heart attack but not yet dead, and revived injured lungs and kidneys.
Infusions of mitochondria also prolonged the time organs could be stored before they were used for transplants, and even ameliorated brain damage that occurred soon after a stroke.
In the only human tests, mitochondrial transplants appear to revive and restore heart muscle in infants that was injured in operations to repair congenital heart defects.
I’m not sure that “transplants” is the correct word, however, because (if I’m reading the article correctly) the mitochondria seem to come from the patients’ own bodies. It doesn’t appear to be a really complicated technique, either.
Transplant is indeed the term – an autologous transplant, to be specific. The possibilities for treatment with this technique are almost endless.
The correct term is autotransplantation.
This technique delays development of necrosis – that is, of massive cell death in tissues and organs starved of oxygen and glucose because of interruption of blood supply.
Blogged this before coming here.
In cell death, the mitochondria basically start the the process of necroptosis. I imagine that transplanting miochondria that have not been switched over to necroptosis could remove the cell. They are the “powerhouses” of the cell!
Cool stuff.