X-Message-Number: 7761
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 03:56:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: 2'nd Update on Fly Experiments

    This is the 2'nd update on my fly experiments. There is now only one
 zero mortality milk bottle, that containing lycopene. The results are as
 follows:
                   Day 21              Day 31
 Supplement   Alive/Dead/Mortality Alive/Dead/Mortality%
 Lipoic           4/5     55%          2/7     78%
 Biotin           3/5     62           1/7     88
 CLA              3/4     57           0/7    100
 Forskolin        9/1     10           8/2     20  (frisky)
 Glutamine        5/0      0           1/5     83
 Lycopene         5/0      0           5/0      0  (frisky)
 NADH             6/1     14           6/1     14
 Pregnenolone     8/0      0           6/2     25  (frisky)
 Pyroglutamic     5/3     38           4/4     50
 RNA              4/3     43           0/7    100
 Xanthophyll      5/3     38           6/2     25

   The biggest change is in the glutamine bottle. All 5 flies died and
 another mysteriously appeared. A lot can happen in just 10 days in the
 life of a drosophilia melanogaster fly! In the xanthophyll group one fly
 that had been counted as dead (or non-moving) came back like lazarus in
 the day 31 count. Alas the flies in this group are all moving rather
 slowly and I fear for their continued existance. The same could be said
 of the flies in the NADH bottle, but here at least the mortality has not
 changed from day 21.
   The two bottles with 100% mortality, CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) and
 RNA  are the only two bottles that the taurine larvicide failed to
 completely inhibit reproduction. I had to count only corpses here to
 estimate the number left alive of the original flies.
   The absence of a proper control group makes interpretation of these
 results rather problematic, as does the uncertain age of the flies at the
 start of the experiment (most were less than 26 days old then). Both of
 these deficiencies will be remedied with my second run, which I expect to
 start in a few weeks. This run will feature generally lower percentages
 of active ingrediants to avoid possible problems of toxicity. In order to
 quickly screen as large a number of supplements as possible I will be
 testing combinations mostly.
    In only three bottles do the flies still seem frisky or like to fly a
 lot. Mortality was less than 26% in all of these bottles: forskolin,
 lycopene and pregnenolone. The lycopene bottle has been proving to be
 very interesting since it is now the only zero mortality bottle. I will
 continue to monitor this experiment and will report on future
 developments.
    If you would like to do your own fly experiments formula 4-24
 drosophilia medium (which includes a mold inhibitor) is available from:
    Carolina Biological Supply Company
    2700 York Road
    Burlington, North Carolina
    USA 27215

    I obtained my flies locally from the UBC fly lab. To obtain flies
 yourself call the biology department at your local university and ask for
 their fly lab.


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7761