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43rd APS President (1970-1971)
A. Clifford Barger
(1917-1996)
During his tenure on Council and in presidential offices, Barger led APS
into effective programs for improving professional opportunities for
minority groups and for women. He has written:
"My most important contributions probably have been in the founding and
funding of the Porter Physiology Development Program and the education of
minority physiologists through the Porter Physiology Development Committee,
as well as the first presidential tour of the predominantly black schools,
the organization of a workshop for minorities in research, . . . and support
of women in the affairs and offices of the Society."
Born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, as a young man Barger went east and
found his professional career almost entirely within ten miles of the Boston
Common. He graduated from Harvard University in 1939 and from Harvard's
Medical School in 1943. In 1943 and again in 1945 he was a member of the
house staff of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, until he joined the research and
then the teaching staff of the Department of Physiology in 1946 under the
chairmanship of Eugene M. Landis. Moving steadily upward in rank, he became
professor of physiology in 1961 and Robert Henry Pfeiffer Professor two
years later. During much of his time in the department, Barger has held also
appointments in clinical departments. For example, he was assistant in
medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1946 to 1953, until he joined
the associate staff of that hospital. In 1959 his title was changed to
consultant, and from 1965 he has held a similar title at Children's Hospital
Medical Center and at St. Vincent's Hospital. For two years (1974- 76)
Barger filled the position of chairman of the Department of Physiology.
Before he became identified with this department, Barger had begun
fundamental research in three other settings.
"I was fortunate as an undergraduate to be a student fellow in the
Fatigue Laboratory when D. Bruce Dill (23rd president of APS) was director.
I worked on the problem of anaerobic glycogenolysis in frog muscle with my
Harvard College tutor, Robert E. Johnson (1). (Dr. Johnson later served for
more than 20 years as head of the Department of Physiology at the University
of Illinois in Urbana.) My next research experience, as an intern at the
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, was the study with George Thorn of the effect
of testosterone on exercise endurance in patients with progressive muscular
dystrophy. During World War II, I was assigned by the Army to the Climatic
Research Laboratory (in Lawrence, MA) to do research on protection of
soldiers exposed to cold climates."
"After release from the Army, as a research fellow with Dr. Landis I
studied the response of the cutaneous blood vessels during treadmill
exercise (2)."
These experiments with Landis led naturally to thirty-five years of
ongoing research on pathophysiology of congestive heart failure,
renovascular hypertension, and coronary artery disease. Barger and his
co-workers first attempted to explain why patients with congestive heart
failure retain water and electrolytes and to this end developed a technique
for inducing an analogous condition in dogs. They did this by combining
operations to produce tricuspid valvular insufficiency with pulmonary
arterial stenosis and so created right-sided congestive failure (3). When
renal function of the animals was tested, a depressed response to
intravenous salt loading was found before there was evidence of any decrease
in glomerular filtration rate (4). The results suggested an increased
tubular reabsorption of sodium. To test this hypothesis, methods for
studying the output of the two kidneys separately were devised, with
perfusion of one kidney with hypertonic sodium chloride solution while the
other kidney served as a control. Increased tubular sodium reabsorption by
the perfused kidney was thereby confirmed (5). Later experiments
demonstrated for the first time that unilateral infusion of physiological
doses of aldosterone in unanesthetized dogs produces a unilateral kaliuresis
with no change in sodium excretion, although in adrenalectomized dogs the
same infusion led to both kaliuresis and antinatriuresis (6).
While infusing solutions into renal vessels, Barger and his colleagues
discovered that in dogs with congestive failure the cortical nephrons of the
kidney had a reduced blood flow, from which they concluded that the outer,
shorter nephrons might be "relative salt losers," whereas the inner nephrons
with longer loops might be "relative salt retainers." To study differential
blood flow more thoroughly, the laboratory developed an inert gas technique
for measurement of regional blood flow in kidneys of unanesthetized dogs
(7). Similarly unanesthetized animals were later utilized for experiments on
the role of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in compensation for
congestive heart failure. Here the preliminary operations included permanent
placement of catheters and implantation of inflatable cuffs on pulmonary
artery and thoracic aorta. When the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system was
inactivated, these animals lost most of their capacity to compensate for the
congestive failure (11).
The second of Barger's three primary research interests, renovascular
hypertension, is represented in his bibliography by a series of papers, of
which five are included here (8-12). The research was made possible by the
prior development of methods for inducing chronic changes in blood flow of
unanesthetized dogs and so studying sequentially changes in the
renin-angiotensin system. The authors found that in salt-depleted dogs
maintained on a low-salt diet to prevent water and electrolyte retention,
renovascular hypertension is maintained primarily by the renin- angiotensin
system (12, 13).
Current work of Barger's laboratory again concerns coronary arterial
blood flow and coronary artery disease. New evidence has been provided for a
significant role of the vasa vasorum in pathogenesis of coronary artery
plaques (14), in confirmation of results published nearly fifty years ago by
Winternitz and his colleagues in the Department of Pathology at Yale.
An unusual feature of research in Barger's laboratory has been the
production of motion pictures of physiological responses. He and his
associate, R. Beeuwkes, were able to photograph renal tubules as they were
being injected with silicone rubber through micropipettes. These studies led
to others on the vascular-tubular organization of canine and human kidneys
and to photographs of neovascularization of atherosclerotic coronary
arteries. Shown at the IUPS Meeting in Munich in 1971, at the International
Congresses of Nephrology in Mexico in 1972 and in Florence in 1975, at the
Annual Meeting of AHA in 1979, and at a FASEB Meeting in 1983, these films
have been awarded altogether twelve prizes and medals. Included are three
separate Golden Eagle Awards of the Council on International Nontheatrical
Events (1973, 1975, 1983) and a gold medal by the International Medical Film
Festival held in Parma, Italy, in 1983 for the coronary film.
In his years of service to Harvard and to the Boston medical-scientific
community, Barger has been appointed or elected to important offices. In
1957-58, he was president of the Boylston Medical Society and also president
of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research. In 1970 he became
president of the Harvard Apparatus Foundation. From 1978 to 1982 he was
first master of the Cannon Society of the Harvard Medical School, an
academic society that seeks to perpetuate the ideals and legacies of Walter
Bradford Cannon. An accomplished historian, Barger is coauthoring a
two-volume life and letters of Cannon, the first volume of which is
scheduled to appear in time for the centennial of APS.
Nationally, Barger served on committees of NRC (1955-57 and 1957-62) and
was a member of the Physiology Study Section of NIH (1960-64) and the Board
of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute (1969-72;
chairman, 1972-73). During this period he also was on the Research Committee
of AHA (1966-68). In 1971 he joined the Physiology Committee of the National
Board of Medical Examiners (chairman, 1973-76). His editorial duties have
included Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine
(1960-62), Circulation Research (1963-66), and "Physiology in
Medicine" in the New England Journal of Medicine (1971-80).
Honors Barger has received include the Certificate of Merit of the
National Society of Medical Research (1958), selection as the Goldblatt
Memorial Lecturer (1978) and the Annual Sosman Lecturer of Peter Bent
Brigham Hospital (1980), and the Carl J. Wiggers Award of APS (1982). He was
elected a fellow of AAAS (Boston) in 1964 and a member of the Institute of
Medicine of NAS in 1974. In 1977 the University of Cincinnati conferred on
him the degree doctor of science.
Elected to membership in APS in 1949, by 1960-61 he was a member of the
Editorial Board of the Society's two primary journals. He was appointed to
the newly established Publications Committee (1961-63; chairman, 1962-63) to
which he was later reappointed (1966-69). He was elected to Council in 1968,
and only a year later he began his presidential terms as president elect. In
1985 he was chosen for the Society's Ray G. Daggs Award. The citation for
the presentation read:
"Cliff has also been very deeply involved in the fight by our Society and
its members to maintain access to appropriate animal models for our
physiological research, working especially closely with the [National]
Society for Medical Research and the IUPS."
Barger's designation as cochairman of the Porter Development Committee in
1966 marked the official beginning of his effort to apply resources
available to the Society in the interests of minority scientists. Funds
distributed by this committee originate from the Harvard Apparatus
Foundation, successor to the original Harvard Apparatus Company founded by
William Townsend Porter. In a graceful although brief biography of Porter,
Barger wrote of how in 1929 Porter offered to give the Harvard Apparatus
Company to APS, but Council declined to accept the gift. Porter's response
was to set up a nonprofit foundation to run the company, with the net
proceeds then turned over to APS to support the Porter Fellowships (16). The
total thus made available now exceeds $750,000.
In his past president's address, Barger described the fascinating history
of personal interactions among Bowditch, Porter, and Cannon and recounted
how funds from the Harvard Apparatus Company were made available for the
benefit of young minority-group physiologists (15). Barger conceived this
idea and in 1965 persuaded Council to approve it. Cliff Barger will
certainly be remembered in the annals of APS, not alone for his
contributions to physiology of the heart and kidneys, but perhaps even more
for his dedication to the training and careers of scores of young
investigators of minority-group backgrounds.
Selected Publications
1. Barger, A. C., and R. E. Johnson.. Anaerobic glycogenolysis in the
muscles of Rana pipiens living at low temperature. J. Gen. Physiol.
24: 669-677, 1941.
2. Greenwood, W. F., A. C. Barger, J. R. DiPalma, J. Stokes III, and L.
H. Smith. Factors affecting the appearance and persistence of visible
cutaneous reactive hyperemia in man. J. Clin. Invest. 27: 187-197,
1948.
3. Barger, A. C., B. B. Roe, and G. S. Richardson. Relation of valvular
lesions and of exercise to auricular pressure, work tolerance and to the
development of chronic congestive failure in dogs. Am. J. Physiol.
169: 384-399, 1952.
4. Barger, A. C., R. S. Ross, and H. L. Price. Reduced sodium excretion
in dogs with mild valvular lesions of the heart, and in dogs with congestive
failure. Am. J. Physiol. 180: 249-260, 1955.
5. Rudolph, A. M., S. N. Rokaw, and A. C. Barger. Chronic
catherterization of the renal artery. Technic for studying direct effects of
substance on kidney function. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med. 93: 323-326,
1956.
6. Barger, A. C., R. D. Berlin, and J. F. Tulenko. Infusion of
aldosterone, 9-alpha- fluorohydrocortisone and antidiuretic hormone into the
renal artery of normal and adrenalectomized, unanesthetized dogs: effect on
electrolyte and water excretion. Endocrinology 62: 804-815, 1958.
7. Thorburn, G. D., H. H. Kopald, J. A. Herd, M. Hollenberg, C. C. C.
O'Morchoe, and A. C. Barger. Intrarenal distribution of nutrient blood flow
determined with krypton85 in the unanesthetized dog. Circ.
Res. 13: 290, 1963.
8. Gutmann, F. D., H. Tagawa, E. Haber, and A. C. Barger. Renal arterial
pressure, renin secretion, and blood pressure control in trained dogs.
Am. J. Physiol. 224: 66-72, 1973.
9. Tagawa, H., F. D. Gutmann, E. Haber, E. D. Miller, Jr., A. I. Samuels,
and A. C. Barger. Reversible renovascular hypertension and renal arterial
pressure. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. 146: 975-982, 1974.
10. Miller, E. D., Jr., A. I. Samuels, E. Haber, and A. C. Barger.
Inhibition of angiotensin conversion and prevention of renal hypertension.
Am. J. Physiol. 228: 448-453, 1975.
11. Watkins, L., Jr., J. A. Burton, E. Haber, J. R. Cant, F. W. Smith,
and A. C. Barger. The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in congestive
failure in dogs. J. Clin. Invest. 57: 1606-1617, 1976.
12. Rocchini, A. P., and A. C. Barger. Renovascular hypertension in
sodium-depleted dogs: role of renin and carotid sinus reflex. Am. J.
Physiol. 236 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 5): H101-H107, 1979.
13. Kopelman, R. I., V. J. Dzau, S. Shimabukuro, and A. C. Barger.
Compensatory response to hemorrhage in conscious dogs on normal and low salt
intake. Am. J. Physiol. 244 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 13):
H351-H356, 1983.
14. Barger, A. C., R. Beeuwkes III, L. L. Lainey, and K. J. Silverman.
Hypothesis: vasa vasorum and neovascularization of human coronary arteries:
a possible role in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. N. Engl. J.
Med. 310: 175-177, 1984.
15. Barger, A. C. Past-president's address. To assist young men and women
in the study of physiology: the Porter Development Program. Physiologist
14: 277-285, 1971.
16. Barger, A. C. The meteoric rise and fall of William Townsend Porter,
one of Carl J. Wiggers' "Old Guard." Physiologist 25: 407-413, 1982.
In the autumn of 1995 Barger resigned as president of the William
Townsend Porter Foundation. He was working on writing the second volume of
the life of Cannon before his departure. On March 13, 1996, A. Clifford
Barger died at his home in Brookline, MA.
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