Title: Cell Impairment in Aging and Development
Description: In 1969, eight papers dealing with aging of cultured cells were presented at a small symposium that comprised part of a meeting of the European Tissue Culture Society. These papers, subsequently published by Plenum Press under the title Aging in Cell and Tissue Culture, reflected the interests of a relatively small group of researchers in Europe and the United States involved in the study of aging at the cellular level. Attention to this subject has now grown enormously. The social and medical sciences are being asked to meet the demands of communities whose members live longer and wish to spend their later years as physically and mentally fit as possible. To this end, an understanding of exactly what happens during the aging process is essential, and basic research is fundamental to such an understanding.

This need is now widely realized, and the forty six papers presented at the present symposium of the study group for Aging of the European Cell Biology Organization represent only a part of the diverse research being done in dozens of laboratories all over the world. In a rapidly developing area of research such as experimental gerontology, new models, findings, ideas and directions emerge in great numbers; and, although it becomes more difficult to find a common language among workers in different fields, it is also more rewarding when joint efforts are successful. The present symposium brought together people interested in various aspects of cellular and molecular aging in vivo and in vitro, to confront their work and exchange ideas and experiences, to find "meeting points" and define gaps in knowledge. In 1969, the most commonly used model was that of Hayflick's diploid cell system.

These cells, with their finite lifespan in vitro, were a new star on the firmament of gerontological research, a field clouded by almost too many theories, hypotheses and speculations. Over the intervening years, attention to this model system has grown rapidly, even as the general study of cellular aging, to which this model contributes, has grown. Apart from reports on work in this almost "classical" diploid cell system, the symposium presents studies using different biological systems with results that have been rewarding as information is obtained on patterns of change that are common to more than one experimental system. Indeed, in recent years much more has been learned about the fate of all different types of intermitotic and postmitotic cells in situ. The symposium has also presented contributions dealing, not directly with aging but with early ontogeny; such information on early developmental changes should certainly shed light on some of the mechanisms involved in aging.

We are cognizant of the fact that environmental influences resulting from the complexities of modern civilization may have results that only occur much later, and profoundly affect the lifespan of the organism. There remain, of course, many unanswered questions. Whether there is "physiological" as opposed to "pathological" aging; whether "old" cultures living in unchanged, although not exhausted, medium, are degenerating, not aging; what is involved when "old" fragment cultures regenerate after excision by filling the wound with "young" cells; why some tumor cells in vivo as well as in vitro die while others live; all are questions deserving of our attention.
Subjects: Altern, Aging, Cell Biology, Zelle, Cells, Cytologie du developpement, Congresses, Congres, Developmental cytology, Vieillissement, Cytology, Congrès, Cytologie du développement