Overview
- HKTV disclosed tests in which pig and sheep limbs and heads were removed and kept functioning using lab equipment that measures activity in tissue.
- Researchers reported neuromuscular responses in detached limbs for about 46 hours and measurable brain activity in severed heads for about seven hours.
- HKTV says the work aims to develop devices that keep organs usable for transplants, and it cautions the project is early and not ready for clinical use.
- The firm says a team of more than 20 specialists has run 38 experiments, has invested over HK$44.5 million since 2021, and plans at least HK$50 million a year going forward.
- PETA Asia urged the company to stop the tests, calling them cruel and speculative, and reporters noted HKTV has not detailed how the experiments were run or overseen, while pointing to past U.S. research that restored some function in pig tissues as context.