X-Message-Number: 19570 From: Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 12:04:23 EDT Subject: Aging research idea --part1_4e.e92f16e.2a699287_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have an idea for an aging experiment which I might actually be able to fund myself, and I wonder if some of you could comment on it or recommend a researcher, or tell me a better place to post it. I am aware of the many theories of aging, and that in fact some systems may fail for one reason-damage, say, while others fail for another--programming for example. And there's a chance that replacing one system-say an old liver with the clone of a young one--might rejuvenate the whole body, wholly or partly -- and keep it going until the next system failed. Years ago Dr. Denkla hypothesized that a single small molecule orchestrated the entire decline and fall, but I think he somehow dropped out of research. Anyway, clones allow us now to perform simple experiments to test such hypotheses. Since transplants from young clones to old ones should not provoke rejection, we should be able to transplant organs and see if one causes marked "rejuvenation" and increased longevity. Even before that we can test whether the hormones etc. which organs put into the bloodstream cause the symptoms of age. We could do this simply by a blood transfusion from young clones to old ones, large transfusions that essentially replaced old blood with young. This was impossible in the past because transfusing a lot of blood caused terrible problems--I think the immune cells in the blood attacked the host. But now with clones or quasi-clones from heavily inbred lines this shouldn't happen, so we can do whole-blood-supply-replacements many times. If "young blood" rejuvenates old animals we can conclude that some thing or things in the blood cause aging (or youth), and go looking for those things and the organs that produce them. If such blood does not cause improvements, we can conclude that the machinery itself (organs, mitochondria or whenever) is broken down and that this is the cause of the debility. It is hard to know beforehand. Scurvy damages many systems, but vitamin C in the blood causes general recovery. Whereas some damage, say a ruptured aorta, can't be repaired by any blood chemical. In support of the idea, fixing one system often restores numerous moribund, apparently faulty organs. I believe it was noted with the latest artificial heart that adequate blood flow brought back kidneys and other failing organs--the damage was repairable. So it seems to me someone should be able to buy a bunch of inbred or cloned animals that are blood compatible and transfused blood to old animals. Obviously one asks "Do they perk up and look and act young?", and "Do they live longer than controls?" Inbred rat lines might be cheapest but I don't know if you can transfuse rats or whether they are genetically close enough. My questions are: Has this been done? Would it be worthwhile to try--is it reasonable idea? Is it technically feasible (Can you transfuse rats? Would immune system problems arise from multiple transplants?) What would it cost? As to the cost question, I understand there is a website where you can post almost any project--though usually programming ones -- and people bid to complete it. Often bids of $25 come from India were that's a month's rent, and bring satisfactory results. Talented programmers, well versed in their subjects, work many hours for that. Perhaps biologists skilled in minor surgery would bid on this. Better yet would be graduate students who might do it free to have a thesis topic. Do you know such a student or one who might work for a stipend? Thanks for any help you can render, Alan Mole --part1_4e.e92f16e.2a699287_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19570