Biomedical subjects

P J Meredith

Publications and source records attributed to P J Meredith.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1983

The effect of dietary restriction of varying duration on survival, tumor patterns, immune function, and body temperature in B10C3F1 female mice.

Seven groups of mice were maintained on different dietary programs varying with respect to restriction at various stages of life. Restriction was associated with less age-related decline in T-dependent immunological function and a slight but significant lowering of body temperature. The best mean and maximum survival and the lowest late-life mortality rate was found in the group restricted throughout life, but restriction during any part of the lifespan enhanced survival to some degree. The mean life spans of tumor-bearing animals tended to be greater in restricted than in nonrestricted groups, corresponding to an age-decelerating effect. Tumor frequency varied with the period of life during which restriction took place and was not always decreased in restricted animals. These latter results suggest that the mechanisms whereby dietary restriction influences the aging rate and tumor susceptibility may not be entirely identical.

Animals↗

PubMed1979

Autoimmunity, histocompatibility, and aging.

The immunologic theory of aging proposes that the normal process of aging in man and all animals is pathogenetically related to faulty immunological processes and may be analogous to a type of autoimmune phenomena ultimately involving all body tissues. It may be said that the sharply increased incidence in elderly humans of the autoimmune and immunodeficiency "diseases of age" are thought to be greatly potentiated by the age-related decline in immune surveillance mechanisms particularly involving self/non-self discriminatory abilities. The major histocompatibility complex has emerged as a complex of "supergenes" coding for antigens whose ultimate biological function may be to serve as recognition units allowing lymphocytes to recognize self from non-self on an immunological basis. Also, recent data are consistent with our supposition that differences in age-specific peaks of various immune functional parameters in genetically homozygous mice may be influenced by genes linked to the major histocompatibility complex. These differences may account, at least in part, for the highly strain-dependent, age-specific incidence of certain diseases, including autoimmune and malignant diseases in the mouse. Heightened susceptibility to develop a particular disease in a susceptible animal occurs when a certain balance is reached between the interplay of immune functional parameters which mature, differentiate, or decline at different rates in the same animal. The age-specificity of this balance may be under partial control of H-2 or HLA-linked genes.

Aging↗

PubMed1979

Aging increases expression of LPS-induced autoantibody-secreting B cells.

Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a polyclonal B cell activator, has been employed to achieve in vitro stimulation of autoantibody-secreting B cells in young adult and aged mice of long-lived strains as assayed in a hemolytic plaque technique to syngeneic mouse erythrocytes. Aged 21- to 24-month-old C57BL/6J and (C57BL/10Sn x C3H/HeDiSn)F1 mice were found to express 3 to 4 times as many LPS-induced plaque-forming cells (PFC) to autologous erythrocytes than did younger 6-month-old animals. With the use of cyclophosphamide (CY), a significant enhancement of auto-PFC production in young mice occurred, approaching levels found in non-CY-treated old mice. Thus, autoreactive clones of lymphocytes exist in the spleens of young adult mice, but under normal circumstances produce little autoantibody. The situation in aged members of these strains, therefore, does not seem to involve an actual increase in numbers of autoreactive B cells, but may possibly involve some form of deregulation, permitting increased age-related expression of autoreactive lymphocyte clones.

Aging↗