Biogerontological Research: Shedding New Light on Old Questions of Longevity and Prolongevity

Biogerontological Research: Shedding New Light On Old Questions Of Longevity And Prolongevity The Scientist, Vol:9, #10, p. 12, May 15, 1995. Author: Eugene Garfield The Old Testament reports some rather Alexis Carrel in 1912 and subsequently remarkable life spans. The youngest became a paradigm for the field. It fostered patriarch, Enoch, died at a comparatively the belief that aging must be an extracellular spry 365 years. The oldest, Methuselah, process. In a classic 1961 paper lived to 969. Well, as the Porgy and Bess (Experimental Cell Research, 25:585-621), song goes, "It ain't necessarily so." But the Hayflick and Paul Moorhead discovered the Judeo-Christian tradition is not alone in opposite--that cultured human cells die after claiming fantastic life spans. Similar claims undergoing about 50 divisions. Not only are have been made in many ancient cultures, cells mere mortals, but also aging is indeed including Babylon, Greece, Rome, India, an intracellular process. It is perhaps ironic and China. that the individual who debunked cellular immortality has achieved professional The maximum human life span is about 115 immortality via the eponymous route-- years. And that has not changed for human cell death at about 50 divisions is millennia. What has changed more recently now commonly known as the Hayflick is our life expectancy. The average person in Limit. ancient Greece and Rome could expect to live about 20 years. By 1900, this had Hayflick's discovery launched the field of increased to nearly 50 years. Today, people biogerontology, a key area of which is in developed nations can expect to live more concerned with identifying the "mitotic than 75 years. clock" that triggers cell death. Recent research suggests that telomeres may play My interest in this subject goes back more this critical role. Telomeres are long, than three decades, when I began a book repetitive DNA sequences located at the about it. The term "prolongevity" was ends of chromosomes. They become coined in 1955 by historian Gerald J. shortened at a fixed rate, like clockwork, Gruman to refer to the significant extension with each cell division. When the telomeres of natural life span by human effort. are depleted, the genome cannot be fully Unfortunately, the book was sidetracked by replicated and cell death ultimately ensues. another project--founding and growing the But cancer and other abnormal cells Institute for Scientific Informatio n. But my produce telomerase, an enzyme that interest in the topic was recently piqued by promotes the creation of more telomeres, Leonard Hayflick's excellent book How and and thereby achieve immortality. This model Why We Age (New York: Ballantine Books, of aging at the cellular level is still 1994). speculative, albeit excit ing, and requires further basic biogerontological research. Hayflick overturned the entrenched dogma in cell biology that normal cells can grow That is the salient message of Hayflick's indefinitely outside the organism when book. He points out that just $50 million of supplied with necessary nutrients. This cell the $400 million 1993 annual budget of the "immortality" concept was advanced by National Institute on Aging (NIA) was spent on basic research into the biology of aging enthusiasts who would willingly be deep and longevity. The bulk of NIA's funds goes frozen and thawed out at some future time to research on Alzheimer's disease, other when their diseases have been cured. But for brain disorders, injurie s from falls, the most people, such immortality would be a psychological and social problems curse because, as Hayflick points out, "we confronted by the aged, and other subjects. would become weaker and weaker as the All of these deserve government funding. normal, inexorable aging process made our But basic biogerontological research merits vital organs increasingly less efficient" (p. far more federal support in order to help us 338). reach our maximum life span and- -just as important--ameliorate the inevitable Most of us would settle for simply attaining physiological decline that accompanies the full 115- year life span, as long as our aging. independence, vitality, and quality of life were assured. Were that to happen, my book The prospect of virtual immortality-- would then be a historical perspective on extending the span well beyond 115 years-- longevity rather than a futuristic speculation may be a blessing to the cryogenics on the prospect of immortality . ------------------.

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