Evening star., 1952-08-22
Laboratory Produces
Million Mice q Year
Germ Plusm Helping to Solve
Mony Medical Problems
BY Thomos R. Henry

" '~Ss" sSSsPu9 " SViVS
Many Medical Problems
By Thomas R. Henry
A million mice year are the major
product Of one Of the worlds most i'm
portant biological laboratories.
They are helping solve some Of the
outstanding problems of human medi-
cine-including those Of cancer, dia-
betes. fatness. sterility and old age.
They are extraordinary mice, carry
ing in their germ plasm from gen.
Grafton to generation all sorts of heredi-
tary diseases and malfunctions.
The institution is the Roscoe B. Jack
son memorial laboratory at Bar Harbor.
Me. Five years ago it was completely
destroyed by fire and the precious mice
product Of the finest skill of the ami
NAL breeders for generations-were lost.
On Trail Of "Cancer Vaccine"
At the Jackson Laboratory itself
some extremely exciting work is in prog
ress. Scientists there. for example, are
on the trail of cancer vaccine"
Many have tried" says a statement
issued from the laboratory so far
they have always failed and today most
laboratories in the world shy away from
the problem as an illusory and hope
less one. But Drs. Kaliss and Smell
OF our staff have recently noted some
leads in their work on tumor CRAFTS in
mice which make the problem of i'm
munity look a little less than hopeless.
Their chance of really developing a
vaccine is probably less than one in a
thousand, But If they should succeed
and could eventually prevent even a
fraction of the cancers which otherwise
Will kill one person out of every seven
living today. people from all over the
world would flock to pay for it,"
The lead is considered so hopeful
that the work is being supported by a
grant from the Committee on Growth
of the National Academy of Sciences.
Another problem being attacked is
that Of reproductive efficiency as it is
influenced by inheritance and diet. A
diet has been devised which increases
the reproduction of certain strains of
mice by SIS per cent. It can be stepped
up another 80 per cent by the addition
OF one OF the antibiotics, such as strepto-
mycin. The mice. it is reported, have
somewhat larger litters, they start hav.
ing young at somewhat earlier age.
and larger percentage Of those born
survive to maturity. .v
A third problem being solved with
the help OF the purebred mice is that
of tissue nutrition"
When wound heals most of the heal
inU ic with
to close over such scars because it grows
so much slower than does the granula-
ton tissue. The scars must be covered
by skin CRAFTS. which are notoriously diff
f1cult. Why, the Jackson Laboratory
scientists have asked themselves, cannot
salve be applied which will promote
skin growth and oppose scar-tissue
growth? t..
THE problem can be approached
theoretically" says the laboratory an
nouncement, "by growing tissues outside
the body in artificial nutrients. But the
problem has faced for 40 years the fact
that the only known nutrient for such
isolated tissues consists of a mixture of
half ground-up embryos casually chick
and half blood serum. This is q witches
brew worthy of Macbeth.
Bottleneck Must Be Broken.
''This is recognized by all familiar with
the field as one of the most important
problems which biological research faces
today. 1t is bottleneck which must be
broken. The success of blood banks has
led to attempts to establish other sorts
OF tissue banks. supplies of spare parts
for injured bodies. Attempts have been
made to preserve bones, skin, nerves.
arteries and tendons. The Navy has an
important bone-bank propect. But there
is no really satisfactory medium in which
to preserve such bones. The best re-
suits so far have been with boiled bones
preserved either in mineral oil, or frozen
and then dried. There are only two
laboratories in the world in which this
Is major project-the Jackson
Laboratory and the Royal Cancer Hos
pital in London. This coming year these
two institutions are pooling their per-
sonnet on this project for a concerted
attack"
Other fundamental studies are break
ing new ground in the understanding of
inheritance of ability to learn, mental
oefectS, combativeneSs, cooperation.
loyalty, liking to be alone, etc.
Some results already are outstanding.
1t is becoming quite clear" says labo-
ratory announcement, that the old adage
You can't teach an old dog new tricks
Is quite false. A dog which can learn
as young dog can learn equally well as
an old dog. But you can't teach dumb
dog tricks old or new.
Some mice inherit a type of nerve
senSltlvity which causes them to 20 into
convulslons and die when subjected to
loud noise. Other strains are quite
immune to noise. But if the noise-sensi-
tive strains are given a preliminary dose
OF thlouracil (Which cuts down thyroid
activity many animals which otherwise
would have died will survive. This sort
OF knowledge may be of great usefulness
In a world torn with psychological and
sociological distinctions"