Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-15
CHEMICAL FOUND
WHICH INCREASES
CELLULAR DIVISION
Remarkable Effect on Funda-
mental Life Process
Demonstrated.
EXPERIMENTS ARE PART
OF CANCER CELL STUDY
Glutathione, Recently Isolated,
Used in Work With AmOebae,
Individual Animals.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


fundamental of all life processes, mas
inst been demonstrated at the National
Institute of Health here
experiments by Prof. Carl Voegtln,
head of the Department of Pharma-
cology. and DR.. w. H. Charley snow
that the rate of division OF variety
of amoeba, an animal consisting Oh
only one cell, is increased approAlli. a ~
200 per cent at certain stage IN It's
growth by adding to the salt solution
in which it is placed an extremely
small amount of glutathione. ms IS
a very complex chemical compound
which occurs in nature in most amman
cells and which contains sulphur IN
combination with three organic COM
pounds. Previous work by Frol.
Voegtlin and his associates has SHOWN
that it inhibits the poisonous enects OF
arsenic.
Part of Cancer Study Program:
The present experiments are part OF
a program of intensive study OF the
chemistry of the cancer cell. me law
less division, or reproduction, OF tneSe
cells is essentially what makes them
fatal to the rest of the organism. No
body knows why they multiply. For
that matter. nobody understands clearly
what makes normal cells multiply. The
process is what makes life continuous
in the world and its mechanism Is one
of the most deeply hidden secrets OF
nature.
The experiments with glutathione
have been confined to the amoeoa'
which is neither a cancer cell nor
normal body cell, but an individual
animal sufficient unto itself. There IS
no assurance, Prof. Voegtlin insists, that
the results would apply to other cells
In a sense, the body of any animal Is
an enormous aggregation OF one-celleo
animals. The important difference be-
tween them and the amoeba is that
They are extremely specialized as mem
bers of society, each doing a specinc
Job and dependent on the nice Co
operation of all the others for its well-
being. The amoeba can take care OF
its.n. The malignant tumor cell often
is described as a member OF the body
state of sngle-celled units which has
gotten out of control of the mechanism
Of the organism as whole. 1t no
longer confines itself to specific job,
becomes a social parasite, deYouring the
substance of the good citizens and re-
produces itself without control.
Multiply in Same Way.
Now the amoeba, the normal cell, and
the malignant cell multiply in essen
tally the same way-by splitting in two
each half becoming an independent in
diyidual. It is upon this splitting proc
ess that the glutathione experiments
throw some light, at least so far as the
amoeba is concerned.
GIutathione probably exists in all
cells, it is explained, in varying amounts,
all very minute. Prof. Voegtlin and DR..
Thompson had found previously that
the glutathione content of the bodies OF
unborn rats declined with the age OF
the embryo. This is the period OF the
animals greatest growth, which pro-
ceeds by the process OF cell division.
The possible implication was that TINS
compound was one OF the essential
agents causing this cell-splittlng. As
the rate Of growth slowed down as the
embryo neared the stage OF being born,
there was less need for this cell-repro-
duction stimDlant and hence, in the
mysterious economy of nature, the sup
ply declined.
Another important observation was
that malignant cells contained q larger
amount Of the compound than most
normal cells. The greatest supply OF all
was in the liver and the cancer supply
almost equaled this. But, as in all bio
chemical processes, II was extremely
dificult to isolate the effect OF gluta-
thione on cell division from other physi-
cal and chemical factors.
Cell AbsOrbs NOurishment.
The cell. for example-whether 1t be
q unicellular animal. normal body cell
or malignant cell-absorbs nourishment
and grows The mere increase in the
bulk of cell material, Overwhelming the
cohesive forces of the unit, might set
up processes forcing division, regard
less Of any chemical accelerant. It was
necessary TO find some unicellular or
ganism which could be kept alive in
solution, the formula for which was
known precisely TO the minutest de-
tail, for several days without food. This
could not be done with cells taken from
an animal body Individuals hardly Will
survive at all and the solutions in which
groups will survive are empirically con-
stituted so that the precise chemical
formulas are unknown.
But it was found that the amoeba
could be kept alive for from z to IA
DAYS. without any food, in salt Solu-
ton. the composition of which was
known to the minutest fraction. There
fore any change which followed intro
duction into this solution Of any other
substance could be attributed 20 the lE-
troduced material.
observed each amosba separately under
the microscope. Some were kept as
controls in the salt solution without any
Of the compound glutathione, but with
he three organic constituents OF the
substanc- -glycine, alanine ana GU
tamic acid-introduced These produced
no notable effect apart from the sui
phur combination in which they exis
in glutathione itself. Others were placed
in the saline solution containing tn
minute addition OF glutathiOne, ane
their percentage of division was COM
pared with that of the controls.
The percentage OF reproduction II
both groups was found to depend on th'
siz. This was measured in terms o.
units of cell volume-a unit was one
ten-thousandth of a cubic millimeter
For the tiniest ones there was littl'
division in either group. When al
amoeba grew to exceed units OF Gel
volume the extraordinary difference
began to appear. especially in the split
ting of the nuclei The splitting of ;
cell is a very complicated process, boil
halves requiring part Of every con
stituent of the parent cell which l
essential to life. The first step is 70
the nucleus to split in two. Then tn
other cellular material splits. each hal
taking one part of the divided nucleus
Sharp Decline Noticed.
The Public Health Service scientist
found that when the amoeha had at
tanned to between 10 and is units of Gel
volume the rate of splitting of tn
nuclei became about $50 per cent create
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