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Photograph of Animal Tissue* in Liquid Plasma, and the Embry
onic Juice of Chickens These Cells Not Only Live, but Grow
and Remain Untouched by Age.
THAT the cells of which the hu
man body is composed can
live forever Is the remark
able conclusion reached by Hr.
Alexis Carrel, the eminent biologist,
as a result of recent experiments
carried out at the Rockefeller In
stltute of Medical Research
If this be true, then, of course
physical immortality, the dream of
ages, becomes a possibility.
Dr. Carrel has been working along
these lines for several years. Hi
most recent experiments demon
strate. In brief, that human cells
may be kept alive indefinitely if
sustained in the proper medium and
kept aS the proper temperature. In
other wards, immortality, as far as
living c<4js goes, is only a question
of protecting the cell from ileatruc
five forces and continually providing
It with the sustenance it requires.
Cells do not necessarily die They
are killed by outside Influences or
through lack of nourishment.
Curiously enough. Seneca, ihe
great Roman philosopher, declared
some two thousand years ago that
man 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 forever. Physical immortality
becomes m>w merely a matter of
scientific vigilance.
Dr. Carrel's early experiments are
more or less familiar. A few years
ago his one great ambition was to
ascertain whether human tissue
could be kept alive outside of the hu
man system Could a microscopic
piece of tissue be taken from the
body and kept alive in a glass ves
sel—in vitro, as the scientists desig
nate it?
The scientist experimented along
these lines for years trying to find
a proper medium in which to keep
alive the severed tissue His efforts
were rewarded with success. Ills
experiments demonstrated that hu
man tissue did not necessarily die
as soon as it was separated from the
body. By immersing It in certain so
lutlons. consisting principally of
blood plasma, he found that It con
tinued to live.
The next step was to ascertain
whether tissue thus severed from
the human body could be made to
grow. Dr. Carrel's experiments con
clusively established that connective
tissue cells could be preserved per
mauently in vitro in a condition of
active life.
And now further experiments have
warranted the scientist in drawing
the conclusion that this condition of
active life may be made to continue
forever
Dr. Carrel’s most recent expert
ments were carried on during the
five months of 19 ft with strains of
connective tissue cells derived from
tissues extirpated from embryonic
or adult chickens during the months
of January and June. 191? and Feb
ruary. 1013.
The fragments of tissue composed
of these cells were preserved in n
medium composed of tw part- of
adult chicken plasma and one part
of juice taken from a chick embryo
eight days old. Every two or three
dayr the tissue was removed from
the culture medium, washed for thlr
,ty seconds or one mfntre in Ringer
solution, divided into two or three
, parts if its volume had increased,
and placed in a new medium at a
temperature of thirty-nine degree’
centigrade.
This fragment soon surrounded
itself witli a large number of celts,
which formed a new tissue After
forty-eigh’ hours the ring of new
s tissue was measured with a micro
I meter, an instrument for measuring
’ matter which can be seen only un
tier a uilcroßcope It wa< found that
the rate of growth of tissue tint
preserved remained constant as long
as the composition of the culture
medium was not modified
How the medium affected the rate
of proliferation, or cell-reproduction,
was studied In two series of experi
ments In the first series Dr. Carrel
placed fragments of tissue of known
activity in media of different com
positions. In the second series stratus
of cells of varied conditions of
activity were placed in media of the
same composition. By measuring
the growtli of the fragments of tis
sue which had been living under
these different conditions for several
generations It was possible to ascer
tain in what manner the media af
fected the development of the tissue.
As a result of these experiments
Dr. Carrel drew the following con
elusions:
"When connective tissue .-ells have
been cultivated for a certain length
of time in a medium which has been
repeatedly changed, a definite rela
tion a rises between the rate- of
growth of the cells and the compo
sition of the medium
“It is possible, by adding to the
culture medium a given quantity of
certain substances, such as embry
onic Juices, to foresee the extent to
which a fragment of tissue composed
of a given strain of cells will in
crease in a given time. The rate of
growth of a strain of cells can be ac
celerated or retarded by the addi
tion to the medium of activating or
retarding substances.
A knowledge of the characteris
tics of the growth of connective tis
sue described has led to a new re
sult—the indefinite proliferation of
a strain of connective tissue cells
outside of the organism
"The strain of connective tissue
ot iginally obtained from a fragment
of chick embryo heart, which had
been pulsating in vitro for 104 days,
was still actively alive after sixteen
months of independent life and more
than 190 passages. (A passage, it
may be explained, Is a transfer of the
cell from one medium to another, a
process the necessity for which is
hereafter explained.)
“The rate of proliferation of the
connective tissues sixteen months
old equalled and even exceeded that
of fresh connective tissue taken from
an eight-day-old embryo.
"It appears, therefore, that time
has no effect on the tissues isolated
from the organism and preserved by
means of the tecnique above de
scribed.
"During the sixteenth month of life
in vitro the cells increased rapidly
in number and were able in a short
time to produce a quantity of new
tissue. This fact, therefore, definite
ly demonstrates that the tissues were
not In a state of survival, as was the
case In certain earlier experiments
but in a condition of real life, since
the cells of which they were com
posed, like micro-organisms, multi
piled indefinitely Irf the culture me
dium."
There is a great deal of signifi
cance in Dr Carrel s observation that
the rate of proliferation of the con
nective tissue sixteen months old
not only equalled but exceeded that
of fresh connective tissue taken from
an eight-day old embryo. It indicates,
indeed, that even at this early stage
in the study of prolonging cellulat
life, scientists have been able to pro
duce a medium which, if anything,
improves upon the medium in which
nature grows cells This Is due, ot
course, to the fact that the medium
used by the scientists in their exper
iments is protected to a great extent
from the poisonous substances which
harass cells in the living organism
In the course of these experiments
it appeared, of course, that the proc
ess of growth among the cells In
vitro produced, as It does In the
parent organism, certain poisons
I’hese catabolic substances, as they
are called, accumulate in the human
system and are responsible for the
death of human cells To protect the
j AreWe Nearing the Secret
of Physical Immortality?
I Remarkable Developments of Rockefeller Institute Experiments
I That Seem to Prove Our Bodies Can Be Made info Never
I : Aging and Never Dying Machines, and the Fabled
| j Fountain
I I of Youth
I Become
a Fact
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Animal Celia “Activating” and
Throwing Out New Connective
Tissue, Although Separated from
Their Parent Body by More Than
a Year.
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A Strange ‘‘Lirinf" Monster Artificially Produced by Prof. Bastian During
Experimenti That Parallel Some of Thcae of the Rockefeller Institute.
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Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain R<ghts Reserved.
The Great German Artist Emile Holarek’s Powerful Cartoon, “Man the Victor. ’ —Here Mankind
in Its Pride is Symbolized as Crowned Kings. Fate, the Jester, Moves Them as He Wills, While
Death Stands by Grinning and Sharpening His Scythe. A Conception of Humanity’s Helpless
ness Which the Carrel Experiments May Make Obsolete.
cells under observation from the ef
fects of their own poisonous extracts
the cells were constantly being wash
ed and changed from one medium to
another—what Dr. Catrel refers to
as a passage.
If it were possible to remove these
poisonous substances as soon as they
are created, the human organs and
the cells of which they are composed
might live forever, provided they
were otherwise protected from other
harmful influences.
At the present stage of medical
science, the idea of thus eliminating
these catabolic substances before
they can work any harm to the sys
tem may seem somewhat fantastic,
but research along these lines will
receive considerable impetus and
encouragement from Dr. Carrel’s
epoch-making discovery that if ani
mate cells are thus protected they
need never die.
It would seem thatas far as hu
.man cells are concerned, the foun
tain of perpetual youth has been dis
covered. It consists of a solution of
blood plasma scientifically prepared
and kept at a proper temperature.
In it cells have not only continued
to live, but have grown and multi
plied. As long as these cells are
constantly washed and immersed in
fresh solution, they will live forever.
How this discovery is to be ap
plied to lengthening our lives is a
matter for future research to perfect.
It will be necessary, of course, to in
ject the life-giving solutions into the
body in some way or other, and the
situation will be more complicated
by the fact that Dr. Carrel has dis
covered that while certain tissues
will prosper in a certain medium,
other tissues will not. In other
words, to renovate a lung it might
be necessary to inject one kind of
medium, while to repair a diseased
heart another medium would be re
quired.
But that science will be able to
do for the whole human body what
it has already done for individual
cells, seems to be far from improb
able. Dr Carrel has already shown
that not only human cells, but whole
living organs, may be taken from the
parent organism and preserved in
vitro and still perform their functions.
From animals he has taken all the
internal organs, from its throat to
its intestines, and has kept them
alive in a box. There they breathed,
digested food and performed nearly
every important function of life. In
order to start life in the severed or
gans he transfused blood into them
from another animal.
He performed this and similar ex
periments many times on dogs and
eats. He kept not only the whole
internal organs alive, but also each
organ separately. In one case he
kept the chest of an animal with
heart and lungs alive, while the head
and the body below the chest were
removed.
The next step, obviously, will be
to ascertain how long severed organs
may be kept alive —whether, in other
words, science can perfect its plasma
solutions to such an extent that they
will keep alive whole organs indefi
nitely the same as they do Individual
cells.
When this has been accomplished,
sufficient data will no doubt have
been obtained to warrant science in
attempting to inject into the human
body some of the substances used to
preserve human organs outside of
the body.
This may be looking a big step
forward, but Dr. Carrel’s work has
justified considerable optimism.
He has demonstrated that if pro
teceted against himself, man may
live forever.