X-Message-Number: 7556
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 19:34:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: DNA/RNA/Chloroform letter

Here's a letter I wrote to Roy Walford that might prove to be interesting.

 Dear Roy Walford: 

   I would like to thank you for alerting me to the unpublished work of
 Greg Fahy. Certainly the quality of the report that Odens wrote was less
 than entirely satisfactory. However after talking with Mr. Fahy I found
 that he had fed DNA & RNA to rodents, rather than injected it with
 chloroform as Odens did. Odens' amazing experiment still seems never to
 have been replicated, even after 34 years. The way I see it there are
 three main possibilities. 

 1. The results were fraudulent. 

 2. The rejuvenation effect observed was due to the chloroform injections
 increasing the apoptosis rates of senescent cells in tissue, similar to
 the effect hypothesized for caloric restriction. (Journal of Gerontology
 50A(3): B107-B109 1995)

 3. The rejuvenation effect was due to the injection of high molecular
 weight fractions (eg telemeres?) of DNA and/or RNA. Since these are
 destroyed by the process of digestion the lack of effect of oral DNA &
 RNA is not surprising. Professor Byung Pal Yu is skeptical that high
 molecular weight fractions could enter cells even if injected. However
 the chloroform here may have acted to temporarily increase membrane
 permeability so that these fractions could enter cells. 

   I have come to the conclusion that the only way to either confirm or
 deny the validity of Odens' incredible results is to repeat his
 experiment. Information regarding how the hypothesized rejuvenation came
 about would be expensive to obtain, since this would require numerous
 animals being injected with a variety of DNA & RNA subfractions, with and
 without chloroform. However initially the most important fact to be
 established is whether the results reportedly obtained are fraudulent. 
 Impressive results require impressive proof. I do not expect that Odens
 made an unintentional mistake since the results obtained were far too
 exceptional. Quote: "After twelve weeks the difference in appearance,
 weight and alertness was remarkable. The 5 untreated rats died before 900
 days. Of the treated rats, 4 died at ages of 1600-1900 days and 1 at 2250
 days." If these incredible results are bogus then an expensive experiment
 investigating Odens' results would be a waste of time and money. At this
 point it appears the most important fact to be ascertained is the
 exclusion of fraud as an explanation. For this a small experiment
 injecting a small number of old animals (eg 3?) with a DNA/RNA/chloroform
 mixture weekly for 12 weeks should be enough to establish this since the
 rejuvenation effects Odens reportedly obtained were unmistakable over
 this time period. Only if the results were positive, could further
 expenditures be justified. 
   If the Odens experiment is genuine it would constitute the largest
 advance in the field of gerontology this century. 
                                              Yours sincerely
                                              Doug Skrecky


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7556