[From Carrel to Hayflick and back or what we got from the 100 years of cytogerontological studies].

The history of experimental-gerontological studies on cultured cells is reviewed. Comparative analysis of cytogerontological investigations and/or gerontological theories of Weismann, Carrel, Hayflick, and the paper author is carried out. It is emphasized that in XX century the theories' nature has changed abruptly many times. It is concluded that at the moment it is almost impossible to explain with the help of the cytogerontological studies' results how multicellular organisms age. The necessity of obligatory combination of experiments on cultured cells with fundamental gerontological investigations, including survival curve analysis for humans or experimental animals is supposed.