Telomerase and Reality Testing
jabowery at netcom.com
Wed Oct 26 11:10:51 EST 1994
First, I want to emphasize that I am simply asking a question about
reality testing as oppose to theoretic speculation. Treating rats with
telomerase would be an interesting experiment regardless of the outcome
and it may even help us engage in more fruitful lines of theoretic
speculation. Has it been done? If not, why not? Does the telomerase
gene have to be cloned before such reality testing can commence?
jarice at delphi.com wrote:
: of divisions a cell is capable of, how does one explain various
: experiments that extend the life of an organism, for example:
: > Particularly striking was a paper entitled "Pineal Cross-Transplantation in
: > Mice (Old to Young and Vice-Versa) as evidence for an Endogenous "Aging
: > Clock", quote: "A remarkable acceleration of aging and death was seen in the
: > young mice grafted with an "old" pineal, while a very significant delay of agi
: > and death was observed in the old mice grafted with a "young" pineal gland."
: > The old mice lived an average of 1021 days, while the young mice lived an
: > average of 510 days. Control mice lived an average of 719 days.
: In the case of the rats that lived longer, did the cells that divided
: get a few extra divisions, and if so, was this extra life mediated by
: telomerase? If the dividing cells did not get extra divisions, was the
: young pineal gland somehow increasing the interval between divisions?
This is a very interesting experiment, of course. But there is no
necessary relationship between the observed effect and telomerase even if
both telomerase and the pineal gland are keys to the riddle of aging.
It would be nice if we discovered a central "control system" which
mediated telomerase and other age-related phenomena, of course.
But all redundant speculation aside:
I'm really confused as to why the experiment with telomerase hasn't been
done (if indeed it hasn't).
The promotion of politics exterminates apolitical genes in the population.
The promotion of frontiers gives apolitical genes a route to survival.
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