The Great Starvation Experiment: Ancel Keys and the Men Who Starved for Science

This chapter looks at the experiments carried out on starving people in the 1940s, when hunger was medicalized and intricate examination regimes rolled out in emergency conditions. In this period, the expansive visions of the interwar period contracted and hunger, accordingly, became more narrowly conceived as a biochemical and medical problem. Many studies such as the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, which focused on human starvation, took place during the 1930s and 1940s. This chapter examines how they shared the same basic interest in the human biology of starvation, accumulating detailed information about starvation and its internal manifestations. In the process they reconfigured food as a medicine, hunger as a disease, and focused attention on the internal mechanics of the body.

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The Effect of Stress and Starvation on Bratn Serotonin Utilization in Arctic Charr (Salvelinus Alpinus)

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.165.1.229 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 165 (1) ◽

pp. 229-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

SVANTE WINBERG ◽

GÖRAN E. NILSSON ◽

K. HÅKAN OLSÉN

Keyword(s):

Brain Stem ◽

Salvelinus Alpinus ◽

Arctic Charr ◽

Serotonergic Activity ◽

Brain Levels ◽

Hydroxyindoleacetic Acid ◽

Experimental Protocols ◽

Effects Of Stress ◽

The Brain ◽

Starvation Experiment

The effects of stress and starvation on brain levels of serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) were studied in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus). Three experimental protocols were used to elucidate (1) the effect of stress in fish given food, (2) the effect of starvation, and (3) the effect of stress in fish deprived of food. In the stress experiments, fish were stressed three times a day over a four-week period, and in the starvation experiment the fish were starved for a four-week period. Stressed fish, whether given food or not, showed significantly higher concentrations of 5-HIAA, the main 5-HT metabolite, in both the telencephalon and the brain stem. The 5-HIAA/5-HT ratio (an index of serotonergic activity) was also significantly increased in the brain of stressed fish. In the telencephalon of starved fish, the 5-HT concentration was significantly decreased. However, starvation had no effect on 5-HIAA concentrations or 5-HIAA/5-HT ratios in either the telencephalon or the brain stem. These results suggest that stress increases brain serotonergic activity in Arctic charr, while starvation has no effect on the utilization of this transmitter system. It is suggested that stress could be a mediator of the increased 5-HTAA levels and 5-HIAA/5-HT ratios recently observed in low-ranking Arctic charr in a dominance hierarch.

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Choline-O-sulphate utilization inAspergillus nidulans

Genetics Research ◽

10.1017/s0016672300016955 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 261-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Roy A. Gravel

Keyword(s):

Aspergillus Nidulans ◽

Genetic Complementation ◽

Normal Strain ◽

Growth Experiment ◽

Fine Structures ◽

Starvation Experiment

SUMMARYThe role of choline-O-sulphate (COS) as a sulphur storage compound inAspergillus nidulanswas examined by comparing a normal strain and one unable to utilize COS in a sulphur-starvation experiment designed to measure the mobilization of sulphur stores. Efforts to isolate the necessary mutants deficient in choline sulphatase activity produced two nutritionally distinct classes of mutants unable to utilize COS. They were found to be allelic on the basis of genetic complementation and fine structures mapping and represent either leaky or tight mutants with respect to choline sulphatase activity. One of these mutants with no detectable choline sulphatase activity was selected for a growth experiment which demonstrated that COS is a major, though not the only source of the endogenous sulphur supply which can be mobilized during growth in sulphur-limiting conditions.

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