Evening star., 1938-04-07
BRICKS DECLARED
AID TO OLD AGE
Formations of ProtopIasm
Described in General
Rebuilding Process.
Ry THOMAS r. HENRY.

NEW YORK, April IA rebuilding
process which prolongs old age and
which may be one of life's most funda-
mental defense mechanisms was de-
scribed before the American College of
Physicians meeting here today.
Experiments on senescent dogs con-
Quoted over period of IA years at
the University of North Carolina show
that tissue cells of such vital organs
as the liver and kidneys, battered and
broken in the incessant battle of liv-
ing. are constantly being replaced by
protoplasm bricks OF an entirely diff
ferent order.
Evidence of the same process has
been found in humans. 1t is probably
one of the reasons, said DR.. William De
B. McNider, professor of pharmacology
at the North Carolina institution, why
old folks are less susceptible to many
kinds of internal injuries than the
young and why life lasts as long as 1t
does in the midst of the innumerable
perils which it meets on every hand.
Experiments previously reported by
DR.. McNlder have dealt with the re-
generation of liver and kidney cells
after poisoning. Both arc highly sus-
ceptlble to a toxic substance known
as uranium nitrate which kills con-
siderable areas of tissue. Ordinarily
when cell tissue is killed, it is replaced
by so-called connective tissue" such
as makes up the scar which follows
a cut, or by regroWth of cells of the
same kind as those which were de-
stroyed. The connective tissue cells
are Just bricks" no different in the
liver or brain than in the big toe
They can serve no specialized func-
ton except to keep the walls from
falling down.
Killed Areas Built Up Again.
When the livers and kidneys of
puppies were poisoned, DR.. McNider
found, the killed areas we're built
up again with normal kidney and
liver cells. They were Just as suscep-
tible as before to repoisoning with the
same substances. But when adult
dogs we're given doses of uranium
nitrate. it developed, the killed areas
were built with an entirely different
sort of bricks. such as are not found
in the normal dogs body, which are
entirely different from the undif-
ferentiated connective tissue cells. and
which are somewhat similar to tissue
cells found before birth 1t was as
If these particular parts of the body
were going back to pre-birth level.
Tests showed that the rebuilt parts
of the liver could still function with
these new cell walls, not as we'll as
before, but well enough to maintain
life. Also they were not as susceptible
as before either to uranium nitrate
or to chloroform, another notorious
liver poison. The older the animal,
the more pronounced this rebuilding.
The next step, reported by DR.. Nc
Nider today was to show that the
rebuilding with the before-b birth type
of cells took place normally in the
course of life and not as a response
to some deliberately administered
poison.
He found that senescent dogs
showed a considerably higher re-
sistance than puppies or young adults
to both uranium nitrate and chloro-
form. Examination of their lfvers and
kidneys showed the same queer cell
types had developed. 1t was as if
old age itself was acting as a poison,
against which the organs were pro-
tecting themselves.
Same Curious Cells Found.
OF special Importance was the find
Ing of the same sort of curious cells
in the mucous membrane which lines
the inside Of the nose. This tissue
is an especially favored landing place
for germs of many kinds, including
the common cold and probably inf1u-
enza and infantile paralysis. Old
dogs. and probably old people, should
not contract these diseases so easily if
the new cells in the nose have the
same protective functions as they do
in the liver and kidneys.
1t has long been known that as a
person gets older resistance to many
kinds of diseases increases. One rea-