Hormones and Mitotic Activity

This chapter is concerned mainly with this latter problem because of the circumstance that so much more is known of the physiology of mitosis in the tissues of adult mammals than in any other tissues.

Abstract

Undoubtedly, many factors influence the mitotic activity of the tissues of animals and plants so that, in development, the relative growth rates of the various parts of the organism are properly integrated, whereas in the more static conditions obtaining in many adult animals, a proper balance is maintained between cell wastage and cell replacement. This chapter is concerned mainly with this latter problem because of the circumstance that so much more is known of the physiology of mitosis in the tissues of adult mammals than in any other tissues. It is, however, possible that this may prove t o be an advantage, because an analysis of the factors determining mitotic rates may be more easily understood in the tissues of animals which are already fully developed than in those which are still actively growing and differentiating. Then with knowledge of conditions in the adult, it may be possible more readily to analyze conditions in the embryonic and juvenile states.