[ExI] Rectal Breathing in Mammals and Potential Medical Applications

[SR Ballard]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/mammals-can-breathe-through-their-intestines

Exerpt: 

“But no one knew whether oxygen could enter the bloodstream via mammalian intestines.

To find out, Takanori Takebe, a gastroenterologist from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and his colleagues tested several approaches to ventilating the intestines of mice and pigs that were deprived briefly of oxygen. In one group of 11 mice, four had their intestines scrubbed to thin the mucosal lining and improve oxygen absorption. Next, the researchers injected pure, pressurized oxygen into the rectums of the scrubbed mice and four of the seven unscrubbed ones.

Then, the researchers withdrew oxygen from the animals, making them “hypoxic.” The three unscrubbed mice that received no intestinal oxygen survived for a median of 11 minutes. Mice with unscrubbed intestines that received oxygen through their anuses lasted 18 minutes. Only the ventilated mice with brushed intestines lived through the hourlong experiment, with a survival rate of 75%, the researchers report today in Med.

But Takebe and colleagues wanted to ditch the onerous—and dangerous—process of intestinal scrubbing. So they replaced the pressurized oxygen with fluids known as perfluorocarbons, which can carry large amounts of oxygen and are often used as a substitute for blood during surgery. Because they are highly dense, perfluorocarbons can also help flush mucus out of the intestine. The researchers injected oxygen-rich perfluorocarbons into the anuses of three hypoxic mice and seven hypoxic pigs; as a control, they flushed saline solution into the intestines of two hypoxic mice and five hypoxic pigs.

Whereas blood-oxygen levels in the control groups plummeted, oxygen levels in the ventilated mice steadied to normal levels. In the treated pigs, blood oxygen saturation increased by about 15%, relieving them of hypoxic symptoms. Color and warmth returned to their skin and extremities in minutes.“


SR Ballard
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