Is death the end? And no, we are not talking about zombies, but about genes. A new study carried out by scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle (USA) casts doubt on this, revealing that there are genes that remain active days after death.
The experiment, carried out with laboratory animals, shows that this post-mortem activity of the genes could help to improve the techniques of preservation of organs donated for transplantation and to find more precise methods to, for example, determine when the disease died. murder victim.
To do this, the scientists developed a new method to calibrate gene activity measurements in postmortem samples. “It’s a curious experiment to see what happens when you die,” explains microbiologist Peter Noble, study leader in the journal BioRxiv.
Thus, they systematically identified more than 1,000 genes, observing which of these genes were still working in tissues of recently deceased mice and zebrafish. The monitoring of gene activity was carried out for two days in the case of rodents and four days in the case of fish.
Experts expected that, after death, all genes would gradually be switched off. However, they saw that instead of this happening, hundreds of genes began to intensify . Most of these undead genes increased their activity in the first 24 hours after the time of death to begin to decline and turn off completely up to four days after death (in the case of zebrafish).
What genes is it?
Many of them are beneficial in emergency situations as they perform tasks such as stimulating inflammation, boosting the immune system or counteracting stress. These genes that wake up after death help to sculpt the embryo and are not necessary after the birth of the child. So why are they activated? The researchers believe that because the cellular conditions of the recently deceased corpses resemble those of embryos.
“ This is a rare study. It is important to understand what happens to organs after a person dies, especially if we are going to transplant them. The study could be used as a diagnostic tool to predict the quality of a transplant, ”says Ashim Malhotra, a molecular pharmacologist who was not involved in the study.
