Walter Hohlweg

Walter Hohlweg (born October 10, 1902 in Vienna , † 1992 in Graz ) was an endocrinologist .

Life

At the age of 24 he began his professional career as an endocrinologist. In 1928 he started working for Schering AG . Just two years later he became head of the department for hormone research. After the Second World War he took over the management of the laboratory of the University Women's Clinic at the Charité . In 1952 he became professor of endocrinology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and from 1962 to 1973 he was the head of the hormone laboratory at the University Women's Clinic in Graz.

CNS work

On February 20, 1932, Hohlweg and Junkmann from the main laboratory of Schering-Kahlbaum AG in Berlin published a classic paper in which they experimentally demonstrate that the gonadotropic function of the pituitary gland is controlled by a center in the central nervous system (CNS). Hohlweg and Junkmann assume that vegetative nerves connect the CNS with the pituitary gland. Severing the sympathetic nervous system and administering parasympatholytic drugs suggest that the authors think of a parasympathetic center. Today we know that the center postulated by Hohlweg and Junkmann is in the diencephalon and that the connection from there to the pituitary is not neural but humoral . Hohlweg himself does not mention Bernhard Aschner's pioneering work in pituitary / hypothalamus research from 1912.

Sociopolitical Influences

On the one hand, the question is asked in this context whether contemporary (social) economy and (social) politics (First World War) as condition factors contributed to the development of sex hormones, which was delayed by 20 years; on the other hand, the clinical developments could not be financed in view of the enormous costs . Also stood z. B. Pituitrin cures still in the experimental stage.

Development of estrogen

It was not until 1938 that Hohlweg and Hans Herloff Inhoffen developed the most orally effective estrogen to date, ethinylestradiol . This made it possible to avoid the fact that Hohlweg will be one of the fathers of the “pill” .

Control loops (feedback)

In 1932, a triangular scheme was used by Hohlweg and Junkmann, in which the relationships between the gonad (ovary), pituitary gland and central nervous system (CNS) were visualized. Reduction or failure of the gonad hormone increases the pituitary hormone production via the sexual center in the CNS, while satiety with sex hormone inhibits pituitary secretion in the same way. The connection between the central nervous system and the pituitary gland, Hohlweg and Junkmann 1932, was conceived as a centrifugal neural connection.

Endocrine CNS center

The role of the endocrine hypothalamus in this feedback system was established by showing that testes continue to secrete hormones after transplantation into other parts of the body as long as the pituitary gland is intact, while transplanted pituitary glands lose this ability.

Eponym

Hollow path effect : In rodents, an estrogen surge provokes the release of luteinizing hormone, which is based on feedback ( rebound effect ), triggered by the pituitary interbrain and caused by ovulation and the like. Yellow body formation is followed (luteinizing hormone; ovulation; rebound effect).

Walter Hohlweg Prize

A prize named after him is awarded every two years by the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics , until 2008 as part of the Schering Foundation.

literature

• W. Hohlweg: Regulatory centers of endocrine glands in the hypothalamus. In: Joseph Meites, Bernhard T. Donovan, Samuel M. Mc Cann (Eds.): Pioneers in Neuroendocrinology. Plenum Press, New York / London 1975, pp. 159-172.
• HH Simmer, J. Süss: The early history of the negative feedback of estrogens on gonadotropins of the anterior hypophysis. The priority dispute between Dorothy Price and Walter Hohlweg. A contribution to self-deception in scientific priority claims. In: Obstetrics and gynecology. Volume 53, Number 6, June 1993, pp. 425-432, ISSN  0016-5751 . doi: 10.1055 / s-2007-1022909 . PMID 8330719 .
• G. Dörner, G. Hinz: History of medicine. Prof. Dr. Walter Hohlweg on his 85th birthday. In: Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie. Volume 110, Number 10, 1988, pp. 628-631, ISSN  0044-4197 . PMID 3043974 .
• HH Simmer: The “ravine effect”. Demand and reality in the creation of an eponym. In: Medical History Journal. Volume 30, Number 2, 1995, pp. 167-183, ISSN  0025-8431 . PMID 11634254 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bayerpharma.com: Milestones in the company's history ( Memento of the original from March 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Walter Hohlweg Prize ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.