Abstract
Macht and Livingston introduced in 1922 a root-growth test for the investigation of the interaction between the physiology of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Macht demonstrated in a large number of papers that, under standard experimental conditions, sera from healthy persons inhibit the growth of Lupinus albus roots. The sera from patients suffering from various diseases, especially cancer, were also investigated by Rønnike1. So far as we know, no experiments of this type have previously been made in children. From this point of view, we investigated 113 sera from children and healthy adolescents as well as 273 sera from patients affected by various diseases. In 113 sera from healthy individuals aged 9 months to 23 years we found that, with sera from individuals of increasing age and height, the growth of roots of Lupinus albus was increasingly inhibited. We found also that there is no substantial difference between the average inhibition caused by sera from boys or girls. Fig. 1 summarizes our experiments.
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Rønnike, F., Dan. Med. Bull., 6, 198 (1950).
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ČÍŽKOvÁ, J., ULRYCHOVÁ, M. & RUŽIČ;KA, V. Influence of Serum of Children and Adolescents on the Growth of Plants. Nature 204, 1010 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/2041010a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2041010a0
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