Looking in this paper I find reference to some research I was not aware of. These are IMO expected conclusions, but I have not seen them previously as cited research. When I get the time, which may be soon, I will try hunting down the references.
Later, Pierpaoli succeeded in demonstrating that (1) substitution of pineal gland in old mice by that from the young mice prolongs life whereas the old-to young substitution has the opposite effect, (2) transplantation of the old pineal gland to thymus of a young mouse shortens the life span, (3) removal of pineal gland on the fourteenth month of the life has an effect similar to substitution of old pineal
gland in young mice, (4) the nocturnal treatment of old mice with melatonin is favorable for longevity (see Pierpaoli, this volume).83–88
The above is in a section looking at hormonal control of aging. As people know I think the role of melatonin here is not hormonal control, but anti-oxidant protection of mtDNA. The experimental results, however, remain valid notwithstanding the errors in assumed mechanism.
I have also extracted this section that was interesting
As was noticed by Wallace and Weismann, some of organisms of this kind are
constructed in a way predetermining death shortly after reproduction. For instance,
imagos of mayflies die within a few days since they cannot eat due to lack of functional mouth and their intestines are filled with air.2 In the mite Adactilidium, the
young hatch inside the mother’s body and eat their way out.50 The male of some
squids dies just after transferring his spermatophore to a female.51 The female octopus stops eating when her children are hatched. This does not occur if her optical
glands are removed. Such an operation results in a four-fold increase in life span of
the animal.52 Bamboo can live for 15–20 years reproducing vegetatively but then, in
the year of flowering, dies at the height of the summer time immediately after the
ripening of the seeds (see Skulachev8 for discussion).
Striking observations were made in studies of salmon. The Pacific salmon was
shown to die immediately after spawning as a result of accelerated aging (progeria),
which develops when the fish leaves the ocean and swims along a river to its upper
reaches. The traditional explanation of this kind of death was that the animal spends
too much energy when swimming in the river for a long distance against current.
However, this point of view proved to be wrong since (1) aging and death did not
occur if gonads or adrenal glands were removed53 and (2) progeria was observed
even when the river was very short and current was weak. In the Far East of Russia,
two populations of salmon were compared, one spawning in the upper reaches of the
Amur river (thousands of kilometers long) and another spawning in a very small river on the Sakhalin island (only 0.2 km long). In both cases, the spawning fish showed
typical traits of aging that resulted in death. A signal for progeria proved to be
change from the sea to fresh water. In this example, a biological function of suicide
seems to be that the remains of the old fish become food for river invertebrates who,
in turn, are food for the young fish.54
The Atlantic salmon, in contrast to its Pacific relative, after spawning in a river
returns from river to ocean. If it is the summer generation of the fish, it often dies in
the fall. A Russian ichthyologist V.V. Ziuganov has recently studied larvae of a mollusk (pearl mussel Margaritifera margaritifera) that develops in gills of the Atlantic
salmon. He found that larvae can somehow switch off the fish’s “death program” so
the larvae-infected fish live at least one season more than the majority of non-infected salmon (some of infected salmon live up to 13 years). An increase in the host’s
life span is needed for the larvae to complete their own development. It was shown
that the infected fish had fewer tumors and were more resistant to wounds and
burns.54 Leng and colleagues55 reported that a peptide from another mollusk related
to the mussel, a Mercenaria meretrix, activates superoxide dismutase but inhibits
tyrosinase and proliferation of carcinoma cells. Earlier it was shown that a Mercenaria extract possesses anticancer activity and decreases the blood sugar and fat.55
