On Nov 13, 7:02am, Paul M. Schlosser wrote:
> Subject: Re: Metabolic Rate
> >From: Eirik Korsell <eirik at ibm.net>
> >Subject: Re: Metabolic Rate
> >
> >... What I mean is more spesifically; are the cells in a
> >mouses liver for instance the same overall size as the liver
> >cells in humans or in elephants?
>> Not that I'm aware of.
>> But another interesting factor is that cancer also develops much
> more quickly in mice and rats (unexposed control populations).
> Thus, the cells in humans and other large mammals seem to be more
> resistant to background radiation, etc., than in smaller animals.
>>-- End of excerpt from Paul M. Schlosser
Not necessarily true, Paul. You can expose mice to ionizing radiation (e.g.
hard X-rays or gamma radiation) and they will develop lymphatic cancers. On the
other hand, rats exposed to even higher doses of radiation will not develop
lymphatic cancer. Apparently there are biochemical differences in the DNA
repair machinery in bone marrow cells that account for the different
sensitivities of the two species.
Michael
--
Michael C. Kohn
Laboratory of Computational Biology and Risk Analysis
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
P.O. Box 12233, Mail Drop A3-06
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2233
Telephone:
919-541-4929 (voice)
919-541-1479 (fax)
e-mail:
kohn at valiant.niehs.nih.gov
WWW home page:
http://valiant.niehs.nih.gov
