The mortality of adults with Down syndrome as a function of age.

This study sought to test the hypothesis that adults with Down Syndrome may age faster than the general population by comparing the rate of increase in their mortality with age with that of the general population by the method originally described by Gompertz. The differences were not statistically significant. There is a striking difference in morbidity, the Down's adults being highly vulnerable. Alzheimer populations do not lend themselves readily to this type of analysis.

Epinephrine-induced cyclic AMP production in skin fibroblasts from patients with dementia of Alzheimer type and controls.

Skin biopsies were obtained from six patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) and from three hospitalized age matched controls. Fibroblasts from these biopsies were grown in culture and compared for their growth characteristics and sensitivity to epinephrine with four cultures from age matched healthy individuals. The growth characteristics were similar in all three groups. The basal levels of cyclic AMP and the epinephrine-induced increase of cyclic AMP levels were also similar in control and DAT cells.

The medical effects of radioactive fall-out: role of stable end-products?

To summarize, from preliminary observations on the possible effects of radioactive fall-out, it may be inferred that in addition to the secondary products of ionizing irradiation per se, the stable end-products of the transmutation of certain radionuclides may adversely influence cellular metabolism, including mutagenesis. The discussion of the possible role of intracellular barium as an end-product of 137Cs decay is offered as an example of an unpredictable number of broad ecological, as well as the more limited medical, effects that may be of both clinical and climatological significance.