The Medical Kesearch Center REPOSITORY BNL RECORDS Brookhaven National Laboratory COLLECTION LUARSHALL ISLANDS BOX No. MEDICAL OEPT. ‘2496 Upton, L. L, New York 401882 FYBLICA TIONS Skin aging and hair graying in Hiroshima ~ J. W. HOLLINGSWORTH,M.D., and GORO ISHII HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI, JAPAN R. A. CONARD UPTON, NEW YORK The late consequences of irradia- tion—including a possible acceleratton in aging—are obviously important in the present atomic era. At Hiroshima, Japan, the ages of irradiated and nontrradiated subjects were estimated on the basis of appearance, skin elasticity and looseness, and graying of hair. Re_sulis of this study refute the concept that general, nonspecific aging 1s accelerated as a late consequence of irradiation. j. W. HOLLINGSWORTH ts with the De- pariment of Medicine and GoRO ISHII is with the Department of Statistics for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Japan. R. A. CONARD is on the staff of the Medteal Research Center of Brookhaven Na- tional Laboratory, Upton, New York, Mi Changes inherent in skin aging provide the major indexes by which chronologic age is commonly estimated, although hair graying and postural changes enter into the total impression of age. Pathologically, loss of subcutaneousfat, accompanied by decrease in skin elasticity, provide most of the basis for skin change with age.1 More subtle changes in vascularity and skin color contribute to loss of the fresh appearance that characterizes the very young. Investigators at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), where the delayed consequences of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are being studied, have a particu- lar interest in aging. In many experiments in rodents, irradiation has produced shortening of the life span. It was thought that such life shortening resulted not only from the induction of specific diseases by irradiation but also from a nonspecific aging acceleration.?:$ Warren’ postulated the existence of a life-shortening effect on American radiologists, but subsequent, more refined statistic analysis of his data negates this finding.> The possibility that irradiation accelerates aging deserves further investigation. Such investigation is especially merited among survivors of the atomic bombings of Japan, since this population is much the largest group of human beings to have received large quantities of essentially total body irradiation. Therefore, a number of physiologic investigations of aging were undertaken and a life-span study wasinitiated. Reprinted from GERIATRICS, Vol. 16, pp. 27-36, January, 1961 Copyright to61, by Lancet Publications, Inc. 30 2904 y ee FoLoen 6447-936