V.A. prospectus research in aging.

  • United States. Veterans Administration
Date:
[1959]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: V.A. prospectus research in aging. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Aging of Cells eobert J; Boueek, M.D. Department of Cardiovascular Disease, University of Miami School of Medicine Dr. Gerard, Members of the Committee: I am pleased and honored to have our group represented in this meeting. It is a very ambitious program that you have set up. I think it is pertinent for all of us to realize that if aging is to be ap- proached by anatomists, physiologists, pathologists, and clinicians, there must be a blending of scientific disciplines and verbiage. Such diversity makes communication difficult at times for each group uses a set of words unique to his field of interest. Introduction. ‘The reason for dividing aging into vascular changes and cellular changes is because it appears that the only manifestation of aging that is clinically discernible relates itself to the vascular tree. So, through the eyes of a clinician, the vascular tissue is the starting place for investiga- tion which may lead to the understanding of some of the more complicated and subtle changes which must occur at the cellular level, to say nothing of the macromolecular and the molecular levels. All aging changes of vascular tissue are recognized only in connective tissue components of the vessel and include a proliferation of the intima, changes in the internal elastic lamella, or alteration in the elastic fibers of the media. ‘These changes are not related directly to chronological age. The coronaries from a 2-month-old infant, for example, may reveal marked patchy intimal thickening and reduplication of the internal elastic lamella, changes usually seen after 20 or 30 years of age. There have been some clinical observations pertaining to atherosclerosis which may give us clues as to its pathogenesis. It has been noted that atherosclerosis has a predilection for males and it is accelerated in females following menopause. Castration accelerates the process in females. Dia- betes mellitus also accelerates atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis has a predi- lection for areas of hemodynamic stress such as vessel angulation or at the site of a jet stream of blood. Elevation of the pressure in a blood vessel, whether in the systemic arteries or in the pulmonary tree, accelerates aging and atherosclerosis. Serum Lipids. The relationship between atherosclerosis and lipid metab- olism is a subject which has occupied much attention in the literature. We know for certain only that in human atheromatosis one lipid, cholesterol, accumulates at the site of an atheroma. We have no idea whether this is