Med School-M.I.T. Team Chills, Reactivates Heart of Small Dog

Doctors from the Medical School and M.I.T. have succeeded for the first time in chilling an animal's heart below the freezing point in such a way that it resumed beating when warmed and placed in the body of another animal. The successful project may be the first step leading to "banks" of human organs similar to "blood banks."

In the past, medical men have learned to preserve isolated tissues--red blood cells of skin tissue, for example--by saturating them with glycerol and freezing them solid. Upon rewarming, these tissues have been brought back to life.

With whole organs like the heart, however, it is impossible to use this method, since the organ cannot remain alive outside the body long enough to be treated completely with glycerol. Furthermore, though other methods have actually been able to freeze the heart, no heart chilled in these ways has ever beaten again.

The investigating team noted that insects resist cold by dehydrating. Thus, by dehydrating the heart, they felt they might effectively lower its freezing point so that it could be cooled without damage. Since the normal method of dehydration is by freezing, Doctor Samuel C. Collins, head of the Department of Cryogenic Engineering at M.I.T., devised another means to dehydrate the heart.

Heart Revived in 15 Minutes

By taking out approximately 30 to 40 percent of the water from the small dog's heart used and then allowing it to soak in glycerol, the doctors lowered its freezing point to below minus eight degrees Centigrade. They kept the heart at minus eight degrees for all hour, rehydrated and rewarmed it, and placed it in the neck of a large dog, where it revived within 15 minutes and beat for an extended period.

Although the heart eventually ceased functioning, the project was a success in that it showed that lowering the freezing point of organs even further might allow them to be kept almost indefinitely, according to Dr. Samuel W. Jacob, instructor in Surgery and part of the research team. If a way to transplant tissues permanently is discovered this finding will be invaluable.

Other research workers were Dr. J. Englebert Dunphy, professor of Surgery; Dr. Ernest M. Barsamian, teaching fellow in Surgery; and Dr. Owen E. Owen.