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Effects of simulated increased gravity on the rate of aging of rats - Implications for the rate of living theory of agingIt was found that the rate of aging of 17 month old rats which had been exposed to 3.14 times normal gravity in an animal centrifuge for 8 months was larger than that of the controls as determined by the apparently elevated lipofuscin content in heart and kidney, reduced numbers and increased size of mitochondria of heart tissue, and inferior liver mitochondria respiration. Steady-state food intake per day per kg body weight, which is presumably proportional to rate of living or specific basal metabolic expenditure, was found to be about 18 percent higher than in the controls after an initial 2 month adaptation period. Although half of the centrifuged animals lived only a little shorter than the controls (average about 343 vs. 364 days on the average, statistically nonsignificant), the remaining half (longest survivors) lived on the centrifuge an average of 520 days (range 483-572) compared to an average of 574 days (range 502-615) for the controls, computed from the onset of centrifugation, or 11 percent shorter. These findings indicate that a moderate increase of the level of basal metabolism of young adult rats adapted to hypergravity compared to controls in normal gravity is accompanied by a roughly similar increase in the rate of organ aging and reduction of survival, in agreement with Pearl's (1928) rate of living theory of aging, previously experimentally demonstrated only in poikilotherms.
Document ID
19830063357
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Economos, A. C.
(San Jose State Univ. CA, United States)
Ballard, R. C.
(San Jose State Univ. CA, United States)
Blunden, M.
(San Jose State University San Jose, CA, United States)
Miquel, J.
(San Jose State Univ. CA, United States)
Lindseth, K. A.
(San Jose State Univ. CA, United States)
Fleming, J.
(San Jose State Univ. CA, United States)
Philpott, D. E.
(San Jose State Univ. CA, United States)
Oyama, J.
(NASA Ames Research Center Biomedical Research Div., Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 11, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1982
Publication Information
ISSN: 0167-4943
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Accession Number
83A44575
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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