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Biomedical subjects

G Richet

Publications and source records attributed to G Richet.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

[The Society of Renal Pathology (1948-1949)].

Founded in 1948 under the leadership J. Hamburger, the Société de pathologie rénale played an important role for the development of what will become within 10 years a new discipline, Nephrology. Our discipline is unique since it does not come from internal medicine but from fundamental biology which is needed to analyze and understand the normal and diseased kidney. In the Société, where European and Francophone investigators met, several aspects of Nephrology were presented, discussed and sometimes solved such as acute renal failure and its treatment by peritoneal dialysis or hemodialysis, electrolytic disorders and their correction sin intensive care units, renal biopsies in primitive and secondary renal diseases. In 1959, this society became Société de néphrologie, preceding the first international congress of Nephrology, another success of J. Hamburger.

France↗
PubMed1999

The contribution of French-speaking scientists to the origins of renal physiology and pathophysiology (1790-1910).

Some contributions: (1) urinary urea, its chemical composition and physiological meaning, Fourcroy and Vauquelin (1790-1808); (2) in binephrectomized animals blood urea is high and chemically identical to that of urine, Prevost and Dumas (1821); (3) urea level in renal vein blood is 50% of that in the arteries, Picard (1856); (4) retained potassium is the uremic poison, Feltz and Ritter (1881); (5) polyuria induced by intravenous injections of sugars or urea, Richet and Moutard Martin (1880); is the kidney in command of the concentration of the blood? Using cryoscopy, Hédon got the clue, the osmotic load (1900); (6) methylene dye excretion measures the global renal function and thus the degree of renal failure, Achard and Castaigne (1897); (7) the disentanglement of chronic uremia and edema, Widal and Achard (1900-1910); (8) evaluation of the global renal function by the ratio plasma urea/urine urea output, Ambard's Constant (1905), initial step of the concept of clearance; (9) a circulating nephropoietic factor in one-kidney animals, Carnot (1910). In bled animals he also disclosed a hemopoietic factor which later became the renal erythropoietin.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

[Natural science and introduction to physical chemistry in nephrology].

Osmosis, as described in 1825 by H.J. Dutrochet, played a role in the role in the beginning of physical chemistry and of the evaluation of renal functions. In 1871, the osmotic pressure, not so well understood by scientists, was again suggested by de Vries who described the "plasmolysis", a phenomenon corresponding to cell retraction when incubated in high molecular concentration solutions. Although the results were not well interpretated, this phenomenon was related to the osmotic pressure. Van't Hoff studied the mechanisms phenomena and compared it to the gas volume/pressure relationship. Dreser measured in urine the cryoscopic delta that had just discovered by Raoult in animal and man, after a water load (-0.20 degree C) or a water restriction (-2.50 degrees C) and calculated approximately the amount of energy required to eliminate water at various different concentrations of solutes. Koranyi used the same methods in disease states. The loss of difference between the maximal and minimal delta indicates a functional renal insufficiency. This was the term first proposed by Koranyi outlining the role of the kidney in the regulation of the milieu interieur and more specifically in the regulation of water and solute concentration. Hyposthenuria, best named isosthenuria, in the range of osmotic pressure usually indicates terminal renal failure. Koranyi named this test funktionelle Nierendiagnostik, a start for the physiological investigations of renal functions.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

[The discovery of anaphylaxis: 19 days after an anodyne account of toxicology, it is shown that immunity is perhaps pathogenic].

While studying the toxicology of various coelenteres fishing filament poisons, Charles Richet and Paul Portier observed cases of rapid death which had no correlation with the injected doses. In dogs, death only occurred in those which, more than 15 days beforehand, had withstood well an injection more concentrated or identical to the later fatal one. The authors created the neologism 'anaphylaxis' which signifies 'non-protection'. Thus, it appeared that an immune response could be pathological. This discovery opened the subject area of immunopathology at a period of time when, in contrast, vaccination and serotherapy researches were prominent.

Anaphylaxis↗
PubMed1997

Hamburger's achievement with early renal transplants.

In 1947 Hamburger mapped out his course of action to achieve successful renal transplantation and then undertook what he had predicted. His steps were as follows: in 1952, graft of a kidney from a mother to her son, a failure providing more information than any experimental attempt; in 1959, a transplantation from a non-identical twin to his irradiated brother, a rare success with this dangerous immunosuppression; in 1964, a successful graft from a dead donor, with Dausset's introduction of HLA typing to match the donor and the recipient. Hamburger's and Crosnier's endeavours were interwoven with those of other physicians and surgeons: in Paris, Küss and Legrain, in Boston, Murray and, especially, Merrill, with whom Hamburger shared more than a friendship.

France↗
PubMed1995

The chemistry of urinary stones around 1800: a first in clinical chemistry.

At the end of the 18th century, as soon as modern chemistry was created, dedicated physicians tried to apply it to medicine. A rewarding field was that of urinary lithiasis. Stones offered a sufficient amount of a relatively pure chemical present in the body. Indeed, urine and the solidified matter was within the analytical grasp of the existing techniques. The first step was made by Scheele in Sweden who identified uric acid in calculi and normal human urine. During the following thirty years, Fourcroy and Vauquelin in Paris and Wollaston, Pearson, Marcet and Prout in London identified the various salts, uric acid, urate, various phosphates, oxalate, calcium, ammonium and magnesium forming current calculi. The conditions of their solubility in vitro were described. Even rare components such as cystine and xanthine were unraveled in London. The impetus given by these studies offered a good start to clinical chemistry in general and to the understanding of urinary lithiasis in particular. This led to the discovery of the corresponding solutes in the urine of such patients. Unfortunately, during the following decades nothing was added to these chemical investigations, and most of what had been acquired was forgotten. Research was concentrated on clinical pathology. The implementation of chemistry to medicine had to wait.

Chemistry, Clinical↗
PubMed1995

An unrecognized renal physiologist: Friedrich Wöhler.

Wöhler, in 1828, was the first chemist to synthesize urea. In 1824, towards the end of his medical studies, he had already published an important article on the renal excretion of some 41 substances administered orally or parenterally and on the links between their renal excretion and their metabolism: salts of potassium are excreted either reduced or oxidized, urine can be acidic when the blood is alkaline, the rate of water excretion is influenced by the rate of substances excreted in the same form as they are administered. He adumbrated the general concepts on the role of the kidney in the maintenance of the composition of the body. Had he continued in this direction, Wöhler would have been recognized not only as a remarkable chemist but also as a great physiologist.

Germany↗