14 DAY TRIAL // Japanese investigators argue that exposure to opera music after heart transplants gave lab mice a better chance of accepting the new organs. This is a very interesting link, which is definitely worth exploring in humans as well.
The body needs all the help it can get in order to accept new organs. After such procedures are conducted on humans, recipients usually take immunosuppressive medication, which prevents their immune systems from attacking the heart.
If this effort to avoid rejection can be improved and made more efficient by listening to music, then this is a link definitely worth exploring. Researchers published their study showing the link in the open-access journal Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, which is edited by BioMed Central.
What the team determined was that opera music somehow influences mice's immune systems, so that they do not attack the new organs so severely. This translates into higher chances of success for the transplant, Science Daily reports.
In humans, music is known to produce a host of beneficial effects, such as improving the general results of clinical therapies, distracting patients from their pain, and making it easier for them to relax.
However, no one investigated a potential link between music and transplant success rates. The Japanese researchers say that conducting a series of clinical trials on humans could reveal whether the same positive link exists in our species as well.
Music may act via the parasympathetic nervous system, some scientists believe, which may help explain why it influences bodily functions that run automatically. This may also be why music is effective in therapies meant to reduce anxiety following heart attacks.
The research group that led the investigation included scientists from the Juntendo University Hospital (JUH), the Teikyo University, and the Tokyo Women's Medical University, all in Japan, and the Harbin Medical University, in China.
An interesting aspect of the new study is that it demonstrated a positive link only when the mice were exposed to opera and classical music, but not monotones, individual sound wave frequencies or new age music, Science Daily reports.
“Opera exposed mice had lower levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ). They also had increased levels of anti-inflammatory IL-4 and IL-10. Significantly these mice had increased numbers of CD4+CD25+ cells, which regulate the peripheral immune response,” Dr Masanori Niimi explains.