From Trh1@spammers.eat.this Tue Jul 28 21:26:23 1998 Path: news.wwa.com!gail.ripco.com!tezcat!logbridge.uoregon.edu!pln-w!extra.newsguy.com!lotsanews.com!newsfeed.concentric.net!newsfeed.concentric.net!global-news-master From: trh1-at-cris-dot-com Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files Subject: Re: Scully's Immortality Date: 28 Jul 1998 22:26:23 EDT Organization: Concentric Internet Services Lines: 55 Message-ID: References: <6pfbnn$t20$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <19980727.231412.677369.NETNEWS@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU> <35bd5239.183305093@nntp.netcruiser> <35BDE257.167EB0E7@pitt.edu> <01bdba88$8bc36940$159f0fce@default> Reply-To: trh1-at-cris-dot-com@spammers.eat.this NNTP-Posting-Host: voyager.concentric.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Sender: Trh1@voyager.cris.com In-Reply-To: <01bdba88$8bc36940$159f0fce@default> Xref: news.wwa.com alt.tv.x-files:413923 On 29 Jul 1998, Akakan wrote: > Suppose the telomeres are the key to aging (as the previous poster > suggested), so that the mechanism of cell division simply "wears out" over > repeated replications. > > Does this mean that cells that never divide -- like adult nerve cells -- > are immortal? Does it mean that your nervous system (including your brain) > never dies, until the body around it expires? > > Perhaps this is why no one ever says, "Poor guy. His brain gave out." (grin) I can imagine myself being lectured by Scully on neurology, and this might be what she would say: Unfortunately, our nerve cells are dying all the time, and what's worse, they are not being regenerated (and if at all, very very slowly). Neurological development occurs during the period between the formation of the notochord while we are embryos to around 6 years of age after we are born. This period is when the fastest and most dramatic growth of neurons occur, when our nerve cells are replicating the quickest and forming connections, with axons extending to their target locations to form synapses. Our brain is at its most complex when we are about 6 years old. After that it's all downhill. Our neurons are constantly dying off after our first 6 years of life with little or no regrowth, and in some people cell death occurs faster than others (which manifests itself as senility and neurological diseases like Alzheimers). Such neurological conditions do not manifest itself until we are old because we have millions of neurons (with duplicate connections), and it takes 60 or more years for enough of our nervous tissue to die to show the symptoms. There has been experiments outside the United States in regenerating damaged neural tissue by implanting fetal neurons (here in the U.S. we have a moratorium against fetal tissue research due to abortion issues). The most notable case is the implantation of fetal neural tissue in the Substancia Nigra region of the brain to restore Dopamine metabolism. The patients were two heroin addicts who came down with very severe Alzheimer-like symptoms after they had the misfortune of using a synthetic narcotic contaminated with an impurity called MPTP that specifically target and destroy dopaminergic nervous tissue. Researchers carried out the implantation procedure in Sweden, and it was partially successful in restoring the damaged regions in the brain. Neural regeneration is still a very new science-- We'll see where the next few years take us. And when Scully is done explaining that to me, I'd tell her, "Scully, you are turning me on." =) =) Richlieu the Scullyphile