TO LIVE FOR EVER.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1921, 2 December 1913, Page 7

TO LIVE FOR EVER.

DR. CARREL'S LATEST FINDS, SEARCH FOR FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, That the o-:!ls of which the imman body is composed can live for ever is the remarkable conclusion reached by Dr. Alexis Carrel, the eminent biologist, as a result of recent exp< riments car- i ried l out at the Hockefeller Institute of lledical Kcsearcii. If this be true, then, of course, physical immortality, the dream of ages, heroines a possibility. Dr. Carrol has been vrorkin.c; along these lines, for several years. Ilis most recent experiments demonstrate, in brief, that human cells may be kept alive indefinitely if sustained in the proper medium and kept'at ilie proper temperature. In other words, immortality, as far as living cells goes, is only, n question of protecting the. cell from destructive forces and continually providing it with the sustenance it requires. Cells do- not necessarily die. They are killed by outside influences or thiouiih lack of nourishment. Curiously enoU!;li, Seneca, the great iumian philosopher, declared, tome two thousand years nj;o, that mail doesn't die—he kills himself. Recent scientific research seems to indicate that this may be so, and that if his various vital organs are properly safeguarded, nourished, and renovated from time to time there is no reason why man should not live'for ever. Physical immortality becomes now merely a matter of scion-, tifie vigilance. ;.... Dr. Carrel's early experiments arc 1 more or less familiar. A Few years: ano his one great ambition was to" ascertain whether lr iiman tissue cottld- he' kept alive outside, of the human sys- | tem. Could a microscopic piece of tissue he taken from the body and kept- alive in a glass vessel—in vitro, as the Scientists designate it? ;• •• !• The scientist, experimented along-Hicse lines for years, trying to find a proper medium in which to keep alive the, severed tissue. His efforts were rewarded, "with success. His experiments demonstrated that human tissue did' not necessarily die as soon as it was separated from tho body. By immersing-it' in certain solutions, consisting; principally of blood plasma, he found tkjt.jt continued to live. ,

Severed Tissue Active"" 1 The next slop was to ascertain whether tissue thus severed from '/tho liuman body could be muslo to gr<W.'-~I)i\ Carrcl':> experiments conehisivelyestSb-"' lished that connective tissue cells-eon Id he preserved permanently in vitro in a condition of activo life. - Awl mow further experiments'.,J»aw warranted the scientist in drawing the eon-elusion that this condition of active life may he made to continue for-ever.-Dr. Carrel's most recent experiments were carried on during the iive "months of 1913 with strains of comicctiw tissue cells derived from tissues-.extir-pated from embryonic or adult chickens, during the months of January and Juiki, 1012,' and February, 1913. " "J".'.' , The fragments of tissue composed of these cells were preserved in a liiodimiv composed of two parts of adult'chickoir plasma and one part of juiea taken from a chick embryo eight days old. .Every two or three days the tissue was removed from the culture-medium, washed for 30 seconds or one minute inDinger solution, divided into two or'thrcis 1 parts if its volume. had increased, and placed in a new medium at a temperature of o'Odeg, centigrade. This fragment soon surrounded itself with a large • unmbrivof cells, which formed a new tissue. After -13 hours tlio ring of now tissno was measured wit-h a. micrometer, an instrument for measuring matter which can Uo seen only under a microscope. It was-foiuid that tho rate of growth of tissue tlins. preserved remained constant as long as the composition of tho culturo medium was not modified. How the medium affected the rate of proliferation, or ecU-reproduction, was studied in two series of experiments.,ln tho first series Dr. Carrel placed fragments of tissno of known'activity in. media, of different compositions. In the second series strains of cells of vaiiod conditions of, activity wore plac-ed in media, of the same composition. I'.v measuring tli-o growth of tho fragments of tissue which had been living under these different conditions' for several generations it was possible to ascertain in what manner tho media affected the development of the tissue.

Preserved- for Sixteen Months, As a result of these experiments Dr. Carrel drew the following collisions:— "When conncctivo lissuo ccils have boon cultivated for a certain length of time ill ft medium which has l>ot-ti repeatedly changed, a definite relation arises between tlio rate ol : growth of, the cells and the composition of the medium. "It is .possible, by adding to the culture nicdiuni a given quantity of certaitt substances, such as embryonic juices, to foresee the extent tu which a fragment* of tisnro 'composed of a given, strain of cells will incrcasa in a given time. The rate of growth of a strain ol cells c'ijH !),_> accelerated or retarded, by .the addition to the medium of activating or'retarding substances. . , "A ktiowiediro of tho characteristics of the growth of connective tissue described lias led tn a new result—the indefinite proliferation, of a strain of comicctivo tissue cells outside \of. tlio "The strain of connective tissiie'originally obtained from a- fragment/ "V>j cluck cmbrvo heart, which had been pulsating' in vitro for 11H days, was srtill actively alive niter !u mouths of iiuledepemient life and more than 100. pas? sages. (A passage, it may ire explained, is a transfer of the cell irojn one, medium to another, a process tlio UVces-sit-v for which is hereafter explained.) •'T'ho rat'.' of proliferation of tho.connect ivo tissue lp months old cu'uiilled and even exceeded that oi fresh connective tissue taken .from an eignt-uay-old embryo. . "It appears, therefore, that- tjme'.'lias no effect"on the tissues isolated: from the organism and preserved hy inrajis, of the'technique above deseniied. ".During the sixteenth month of'Me iu vitro the cells increased rapidly in number, and were able in a short time, to produce a. quantity of new tissue. This fact, therefore, dojimtely denum, stratcs that the tissues were not m a state of survival, as was the ease ;jy certain earlier experiments, but; in :v .■midi'Jon of real life, sinco the celm-of which they were comprised, like micromultiplied indefinitely, ill!tho culture medium." There is a great- deal of sißmficMiee -n Dr. Carrel's observation that, the rate of proliferation of the connective 'I'jKftle' sixteen months old not only eiytU'lilKl' imt exceeded that of fresh collective tissue taken from an oifiM-day-old embryo. it indicates, indeed, that'.even at this cas'l.v stage in tlio study of p>o r . ionuiiiji: cellular life, scienl ists ; b<\vo . Ix'eii able to nrmluee a medium whieu, if anvtiiiisil, improves upon tlio medium, in wiiich Nature grows ceils. , This is (lu<\ of course, to tlio fact thai..;',lit medium used by tJio scientists in theirexperiments is nrotefted to a (treat extent from the poisonous substance:; which harass cells in the living ism

Protection from Poisons.. Tii tlio oonrsH of theso oxporimrnts, U apptviml, of course, fliat tho process of irrowlh among th:> wfls in vitro (iuccd, as it doo.s in. ilio _ pa rent nvß'iiiism, (H'ltaii! poicims. Thoso ea.lalwlin siiiistanri's, as they aro oallpd, awurmilaii< iii tlio human system, and arc VesiwnsibJo for the fctth of human w.'lls. To protcct tlio colls under ofrsprviit ;-•>?! from the cffccts of their owu, ooisonous.

extracts the celts were constantly lini'ia washed and changed from one medium to another —what .Dr. Carrol refers tn as a passage. 11' it wore possible to remove the.se poisonous substances as soon as they arc created, tho human organs and t- «• cells of which they n,ie composed live for ever, provided they were otherwise protected from other harwUti utiucnces. At the present stage of medical science the idea of tinsa elimmatm:; theso ea'.abulie substances beloro the.v can work any harm to the system may seem somewhat fantastic, but rosea rc.'i ; those lines will receive consideinbie impoLUs and encouragement lwn'rt Dr. Carrel's t*poch-innl»in k discovery tino if animate ee'lls are thus protected they need never die. It would seem that as far as human cells are concerned, the fountain of per* petual youth, has been discovered. It consists of a solution of Wood plasma scientifically prepared and kept at -J propei 1 temperature. In it cells have not only continued to live, hut bar* ami multiplied. As long as theso ceils are constantly washed an 1 immersed in fresh solution they will live for ever. How this discovery is to be applied to lengtheninjj or lives is a matter for future research to perfect._ It will._j.u necessary, of course, to inject the lifegiving solutions into the body in some way or other, and the situation will tie more complicated by tlie- fact that Dr. Carre! has discovered that while certain tissues will prosper in a eeitaijj medium." other tissues will not. 11l other words, to renovate a Ini;.;; it might be necessary to inject one kind o) me* dime., while to repair a diseased heart another medium would bo required.

Severed Organs Kept Alive. JJni. that science will be able to do for the whole human body what it has already done for individual coils isooms to be i'ar from improbable. Di 1 . Carrel has already Shown that not only hummi cells, but \vholn living organs, may be taken from the parent organism and preserved, iit vitro and still perform ibeir, Junctions. ... . From animals ho has taken nil the. internal organs, from its throat to its intestines,' Vml has kept- them alive hi u box, There they breathed, digested food, .and performed nearly, every im,p«rt;int function of life. In order to jstnrt- life in-tho severed organs ho ,t.ransfuscd hloon. ..into them irom another animal, He performed, this and similar experiments many times ■on dogs ami cats. Ho. kept not only tho whoio -internal'organs alive, hut also eae-h organ, .separately. ... In one caw he kept the chest.of an animal with heart ancl lungs alive, while tho head and tho body below the chest were removed. "'"The next step; obviously; will be t« ascertain' how long severed organs may be kept 1 alive—whether; in ether "Words, sck'iico cau pcrfcct its plasma. solutions to ;such an extent that they will keep .alive whok organs indefinitely tho same as they, do individual cells. When this lias been accomplished sufficient'data will no doubt havo been "obtained to 'warrant sftieuc-o in attempt•ing to''inject into tne imman body some of' tlio-substances used to 1 preserve .hmnsa organs outside of the body. ...This,.i-pav .ho looking a big «tci> forward. but l)r. Carrel's work has justified considerable optiinisft.