The brain is one of the body's major organs that controls various body functions, like heart rate, sleep, and breathing. However, the body can also influence the brain's functions through different factors such as oxygenation, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels.

Circulatory Control Device Isolates Blood Flow to the Brain, Shows Potential in Revolutionizing Neurological Research
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Mansoor, S., De Klerk, L., Lineen, J. et al.)

Selective access to the brain is a technique needed in studies that aim to characterize the properties of this organ without influences from the abdomen, chest, or limb. However, conventional methods to artificially control cerebral circulation can abolish vascular signaling while preserving neuronal activity.

What is Cerebral Circulation?

Cerebral circulation refers to the blood flow in the brain, which aims to supply this organ with the oxygen and nutrients it needs to work properly. Although the brain is just a tiny part of the body weight, it needs a lot of energy to function, so it requires a lot of blood circulating through it to stay healthy.

The blood is supplied to the brain through cerebral arteries and veins. The arteries provide the brain with oxygenated blood containing glucose and other nutrients. On the other hand, the vein carries the "used or spent" blood back to the heart, which will aid in removing carbon dioxide, lactic acid, and other metabolic products.

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Controlling Cerebral Blood Flow

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center developed an experimental device to isolate blood flow to the brain by redirecting its supply. It uses a pump that maintains or adjusts a range of variables needed to keep the brain, such as nutrients, oxygenation, temperature, and blood pressure.

Upon testing on a pig brain, the device maintains brain activity and health over five hours, indicating that it can successfully study the human brain without influence from other bodily functions. As described by UT Southwestern professor Dr. Juan Pascual, this new method allows research that focuses on the brain independent of the body and enables scientists to answer physiological questions in a way that has never been done before.

Researchers have already used this system to better understand the effects of low blood sugar in the absence of other factors. They induced low blood sugar in laboratory animals by restricting food intake or dosing them with insulin. However, the body can compensate for this by altering metabolism and the results.

The new device allows the researchers to alter the blood sugar supplied into the brain directly. It could also improve the equipment used during heart bypass operations to replicate natural blood flow to the brain.

Bypass devices work by replicating some functions of the heart and lungs, like ensuring the blood is oxygenated and flowing. Conventional devices provide a continuous flow, but the novel device provides a pulsing flow similar to the human heartbeat. This difference can help prevent some of the brain-related side effects.

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