Tonight on NOVA, Scientific American Frontiers with Alan
Alda, was a superb show about aging and current research.
Here are some notes I too on the subject because it spawned
a memory of of the 'protein melodies' kindly shared with us
by Jean Pierre Lentin about the work of Sternheimer in
France.
PBS - Scientific American Frontiers - Nova - Alan Alda -
8-9PM 01/25/00
On doubling or tripling human life
Dr. Walford - based on research beginning in 1935, he found
that restricted intake of food and eating high nutrition,
low calorie foods would extend life.
Geron Corporation investigating telomerase to extend the
life of telomeres
By injecting telomerase into older cells using electricity
(iontophoresis), they found that some cells are at 300w (w =
divisions) where normal cells die after about 50w (Hayflick
limit).
Telomeres are like the plastic cylinder on the end of
shoelaces which keeps it from fraying and unravelling.
Telomeres keep the DNA from losing integrity and shorten
with each cellular replication.
Young rats with no telomeres have grey, coarse hair or loss
of hair in patches because hair tends to die off first.
Progeria kids have no telomeres causing them to age and die.
Cells with no telomeres are bloated and swelled.
The section called Wisdom of the Worms
Cynthia Kenyon - University of San Francisco
Working with nematodes which have the same tissue and cell
structure as humans.
Nematodes have a 2 week lifespan where 3 days is equivalent
to a 20 year old human.
Young nematods are sinuous and can easily move, while older
ones remain relatively straight, move slowly and can't bend
as easily as the young ones.
(Interesting correlation with the Glen Rose copperhead snake
experiment where snakes were grown in a 35% oxygen enriched
airfilled hyperbaric chamber for about a year, when removed
they were placid, very gentle, their venom was non toxic and
their DNA was straight, not all knotted up like the mean
ones who lived in normal air.)
Aged cells without telomeres are bloated as opposed to cells
with telomeres which are tightly bound.
An experiment to produce a mutant worm that lives 4 weeks by
changing one gene by controlled mutation.
Kenyon says all cells have a receptor that receives hormones
which bind to the receptor and which reduces life span of
the cell by reducing its ability to replicate.
If you can change the receptor so that it cannot accept the
hormone, then life extend because the cell can reproduce
many more times.
Kenyon admits no one knows why this happens.
She has also discovered a2nd life span regulator in cells
that are used in reproduction. When these cells are killed,
life is also extended for as much as twice the normal
lifespan.
She has found that it is the hormone messengers which
regulate lifespan.
MIT researchers are using a polymer scaffold to grow
artificial skin and they expect to be able to grow
replacement body parts. The segment showed artificial heart
tissue that beats just like a heart.
All body parts can be derived from stem cells where a
cloning technique is used to make them by growing them
inside other cells. A little electric shock starts the
division process.
Dr. Jay Vacant - Massacusetts General Hospital uses a
plastic gel to implant heart cells in a mouse heart cell to
heal the damaged heart.
He says eventually stim cells from your own body will be
used to grow your own custom spare parts so that there is no
rejection.
-------------------
It strikes me that telomerase can be broken down into a
'protein melody' where a musical melody could be
acoustically or electrically imparted to the body to
ACCELERATE the production of telomerase in the body to
effect rejuvenation as posted at;
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=575
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=611
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=613
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=621
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=836
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=891
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=918
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=1461
http://www.escribe.com/science/keelynet/index.html?mID=2193
-- Jerry Wayne Decker - jdecker@keelynet.com http://www.keelynet.com from an Art to a Science Voice : (214)324-8741 - FAX : (214)324-3501 KeelyNet - PO BOX 870716 Mesquite - Republic of Texas - 75187------------------------------------------------------------- To leave this list, email <listserver@keelynet.com> with the body text: leave Interact list archives and on line subscription forms are at http://keelynet.com/interact/ -------------------------------------------------------------