IUBio

How we are aged?

Leonid A.Gavrilov ageing at ilr.rc.ac.ru
Sun Feb 4 06:47:17 EST 1996


   On February 3 Mr.Hang-Jun Jang wrote:

>
>I am very interested in the aging mechanism.
>According to Hayflick's theory, the definite capacity of proliferation of
>the somatic cells may be the cause of aging.
>Is there anybody who explain it to me?
>

First of all, the true author of this theory is famous German biologist
August Weismann who has published a lot on this topic in 1882-1892
a century before Dr.Hayflick !  Experimental evidence for limited
capacity of cell cultures for proliferation was provided by another
American scientist Dr.H.Earle Swim in 1957-1959, also before Dr.Hayflick.
For this reason the whole concept could be called Weismann-Swim-Hayflick
(W-S-H) concept.

   Critical review of this concept could be found in our debates with
Dr.Hayflick published by BioEssays, 1994, vol.16, p.591-594, and also
in our book "The Biology of Life Span: A Quantitative Approach", Harwood
Academic Publishers, NY, 1991 where this W-S-H concept is critically discussed
in great detail.

   Sincerely yours,

   Dr.Leonid A.Gavrilov, Ph.D.
   Director, Center for Longevity Research
   A.N.Belozersky Institute
   Moscow State University








More information about the Ageing mailing list

Send comments to us at biosci-help [At] net.bio.net