In science fiction films like ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Re-Animator,’ human bodies come back to life and exist in a strange condition between life and death.
While this may seem like the stuff of fantasy, a new study says there really is a “third state” of existence in modern biology.
According to researchers, the third state is one in which the cells of a dead organism continue to function after the organism’s death.
Surprisingly, after an organism dies, its cells acquire new capabilities that they did not possess in life, biologists say.
If further experiments with cells from dead animals, including humans, show they can enter the third state, they could “redefine legal death.”
According to researchers, after the death of an organism, cells acquire new capabilities that they did not have when they were alive. Different types of cells have different survival capabilities (file photo)
In science fiction films like ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Re-Animator,’ human bodies come back to life and exist in a strange condition between life and death.
The new study in Physiology It has been led by Professor Peter Noble of the University of Washington in Seattle and Alex Pozhitkov of City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California.
“Life and death are traditionally seen as opposites,” they say in a new article for The conversation.
‘But the emergence of new multicellular life forms from the cells of a dead organism introduces a ‘third state’ that is beyond the traditional boundaries of life and death.
‘Certain cells, when provided with nutrients, oxygen, bioelectricity or biochemical signals, have the ability to transform into multicellular organisms with new functions after death.’
The team conducted a review of recent studies that investigated the remarkable ability of cells to exist in new forms after an organism has died.
In 2021, US researchers discovered that skin cells from dead frogs could fit into a petri dish in a laboratory and spontaneously reorganize into multicellular organisms called “xenobots.”
These organisms displayed behaviors beyond their original biological roles, using their cilia (small hair-like structures) to move through the environment.
In the classic 1980s film ‘Re-Animator,’ a medical student discovers how to bring human tissue back to life.
Pictured here are computer-designed organisms that gather individual cells inside a Pac-Man-shaped “mouth” and release “babies” (green).
Other scientists have also discovered that human lung cells can self-assemble into miniature, mobile multicellular organisms called “anthropobots.”
These anthropobots can not only navigate their environment, but can also repair themselves and nearby injured nerve cells.
The team says these are examples of new cellular functions that do not exist in life, “showing changes in ways that are not predetermined.”
It’s still unclear how certain cells function in the third state after an organism dies, but one possible Frankenstein-style explanation is a hidden system of “electrical circuits” that reanimate the cells.
The team says: ‘One hypothesis is that specialized channels and pumps embedded in the outer membranes of cells serve as complex electrical circuits.
Diagram A shows an anthropobot building a bridge over a scraped nerve cell over the course of three days. Diagram B highlights the “stitch” in green at the end of the third day.
This anthropobot was created from human lung cells, which were given a new shape that allows it to crawl and repair damaged tissue.
Xenobots can gather hundreds of individual cells, compress them, and assemble them into “babies” released from their Pac-Man-shaped mouths.
‘These channels and pumps generate electrical signals that allow cells to communicate with each other and perform specific functions such as growth and movement, shaping the structure of the organism they form.’
Several factors can influence whether cells have this ability, including environmental conditions (such as temperature) and energy sources (whether they have access to fuel and can metabolize it).
“Metabolic activity plays an important role in allowing cells to continue to survive and function,” the research team adds.
Factors such as age, health, sex and species type also “shape the postmortem landscape” – that is, whether they can exist in the third state.
Ultimately, the research points to “unexplored frontiers” that could take animal cells to the third state, though whether it will one day resemble “Re-Animator” remains to be seen.
In the classic 1980s film, a medical student discovers how to bring human tissue back to life, with violent consequences.
“This research has the potential to transform regenerative medicine, redefine legal death and provide insights into the physiological limits of life, in parallel with research into embryogenesis,” the authors of the study conclude.