Old Age

by **FlicCity** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:19 am

Hey, everyone. This is something that just occurred to me: does retrometabolism weaken with age? Because that could have a significant effect on the debate about whether or not Scarlet could die of old age.

Think about it; most biological processes change or grow less effective with age. Would that apply to retrometabolism? Does retrometabolism count as a biological process in this context? (Gods, look at the jargon

)

Most of the stories and theories suggest that Scarlet's retrometabolism will always work at the same high level. What if it doesn't?

by **Captain Indigo** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 11:34 pm

Ooh, a challenge... ;-$

(cracks knuckles)

As I understand retrometabolism, it hinges on the fact that the somatic cells (normal body cells) are able to reproduce and repair themselves exactly as they were before.

Now, the ageing process in normal people is caused by the cells' inability to reproduce themselves exactly. Small (and completely natural) mutations in the DNA appear over time due to incorrect pairing of a few bases during replication (this happens very slowly), and this has a knock-on effect in the protein produced. These incorrect/missing proteins are the reason we age. The best visual example of this is grey hair, which appears when the root cells can no longer produce the proteins that make your hair coloured.

(Still with me?)

If we continue with the assumption regarding retrometabolic individuals, the mutations in the DNA do not occur, and therefore, ageing does not occur either.

Ta da! :-D

Resident Biologist (well, second year)

Addendum: Actually, I've just realised that this has been discussed in much more detail from the Resident Physicists' PoV (and knowledgeable others) in the thread 'Can Captain Scarlet die of natural causes?'.

by **DartBrat701** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 7:44 pm

Wow! Indestructible......and immortal! Innnnnnteresting! :shock:

by **Intensity Angel** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:10 am

But what if the DNA sequence changes, maybe through high level radiation. Then mitosis of damaged cells would starve the body of oxygen and cripple the body.

by **Marion** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:18 am

And his retrometabolism would put things right, wouldn't it? If the cells regenerate normal cells, surely they'd regenerate themselves as well?

by **Intensity Angel** » Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:25 am

Maybe. Or an agressive immune response would identify the sickened cells and the white blood cells would destroy or nuetralise the infected cells, leaving the normal cells to continue functioning and replace that which was destroyed.