Aging reversibility: from thymus graft to vegetable extract treatment-- application to cure an age-associated pathology.

Neonatal thymus graft and thymus calf extract (TME) in vivo treatment exert similar corrective actions on different mouse age-related alterations. The aim of the present paper is to investigate whether a vegetal extract, wheat sprout extract (WESPRE), could mimic the thymus action on recovering age-related alterations and if this extract can cure an age-associated pathology, the cataract in dogs. Present experiments were carried out by using WESPRE and TME in vivo in old mice to check their ability to recover the altered DNA synthesis in hepatocyte primary cultures.

Fractal characterisation of boundary irregularity in skin pigmented lesions.

A growing literature shows researcher's interest in fractal analysis, arising from its ability to describe and characterise quantitatively the complexity of several tumour profiles. The aim of the work was to investigate the fractal properties of skin pigmented lesion boundaries. Although melanoma is one of the most aggressive tumours, early detection and a high rate of diagnostic accuracy, followed by timely excision, can allow complete recovery in melanoma patients.

Use of mathematical models of survivorship in the study of biomarkers of aging: the role of heterogeneity.

An ever increasing number of people have been engaging in aging research using various interventions aimed to modify aging processes, and/or life span, of experimental animals. Since this type of studies needs outcome parameters for assessing the efficacy of such interventions, research on biomarkers of aging (ABs) has received new stimuli. In the present paper, the problem of the occurrence of a vicious circle any time we study ABs and determinants of aging is addressed.

Long-live euthymic BALB/c-nu mice. II: spontaneous tumors and other pathologies.

This paper is the second of a series aimed to show the main physiological and pathological characteristics of male euthymic BALB/c-nu mice, a long-live strain of BALB/c mice bred in our own Institute. The previous paired paper Piantanelli (Mech. Ageing Dev.

Long-live euthymic BALB/c-nu mice. I. Survival study suggests body weight as a life span predictor.

This paper is the first of a series aimed to show the main physiological and pathological characteristics of male euthymic BALB/c-nu mice, a long-live strain of BALB/c mice bred in our own Institute. In particular, the first two paired papers are respectively devoted to general survival information and disease characteristics, also taking into account very old animals that are of high interest for studies on successful aging. In this paper we report the analysis of survival kinetics, the time course of body weight and the correlation between body weight and time-at-death.