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50th APS President (1977-1978)
William F. Ganong
(b. 1924)
Known to his friends usually as "Fran," or occasionally as "Bill," Ganong
is a mammalian physiologist, an endocrinologist, and a neurobiologist. In
fact, he belongs to a discipline that intersects all three of these parent
fields, the specialty of neuroendocrinology. His career developed pari passu
with the emergence and maturing of research in this area (13). Whereas only
a few years ago he was regarded as a "pioneer," he is now recognized as one
of the founding fathers of the science.
"My first exposure to intensive research was with Peter Forsham in
Thorn's laboratory at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital when I was a senior
medical student. This stimulated my interest in the neural control of
pituitary secretion, and at that time, the only neuroendocrine research in
the United States was being conducted by David Hume in the Surgical Research
Laboratory at Harvard. Subsequently, I became his postdoctoral fellow and
spent three years in his laboratory. My research interest remains the broad
field of neuroendocrinology, including the production of hormones by neurons
and endocrine-brain interactions."
"I set as my initial research goal elucidation of the mechanisms
regulating aldosterone secretion. With the demonstration that renin via
angiotensin II was a major regulator of aldosterone, I became interested in
the control of renin secretion, and then in the neural components of this
process. In the last few years, I have begun to work on the extravascular
renin-angiotensin systems in the brain and the pituitary gland."
"My first paper (1) is a favorite, partly because it was my first but
also because it introduced a treatment of the Guillain-Barre syndrome that
proved to be useful. I had always had a secret ambition to be "immortalized"
by having my name attached to a syndrome, and I am pleased that the
Lown-Ganong-Levine syndrome grew out of my second paper (2). I also
published several papers on Korean hemorrhagic fever before settling down to
fundamental physiological research."
"The years with Hume were active and stimulating. I was able to show that
hypothalamic lesions block compensatory and stress-induced adrenocortical
hypertrophy (3). Don Fredrickson and I showed that in the dog, as in the
rat, the hypothalamus regulates TSH [thyroid-stimulating hormone] secretion
(4)."
"In California, I focused on regulation of aldosterone secretion. Mulrow
and I found that aldosterone takes 30-60 minutes to exert its effect on the
kidney (5). This, and similar findings by Berger and associates, led Edelman
to experiments that showed that aldosterone acts by way of DNA
[deoxyribonucleic acid], RNA [ribonucleic acid], and synthesis of new
protein. Mulrow and I also found that there is a humoral factor other than
ACTH [adrenocorticotropin] involved in regulation of aldosterone secretion
and that it comes from the kidney (6). It is renin acting via angiotensin II
(8). This work was carried out independently of, and yet simultaneously
with, experiments of J. O. Davis and his associates."
"We have also studied factors that regulate sensitivity of the zona
glomerulosa. In animals on a low-sodium diet the sensitivity of the zona
glomerulosa to ACTH is markedly increased (10). Sensitivity to angiotensin
II is also increased, and exogenous renin can duplicate the effect of sodium
depletion in sodium-replete dogs. Thus, angiotensin II is the "ACTH of the
zona glomerulosa." Later (11, 12) we began to study the regulation of renin
secretion with particular emphasis on neural components (as did Winer and
his associates in Kansas City)."
"We have recently become interested in other aspects of the interactions
between the brain and the renin-angiotensin system, as well as the
distribution of renin and of angiotensin II and of converting enzyme (14).
We have found also that the brain-renin-angiotensin system plays an
important role in regulation of anterior pituitary secretion and that
inhibiting the action of angiotensin II in the hypothalamus prevents the LH
[luteinizing hormone] surge and ovulation (16). Finally, we have studied the
anterior pituitary-renin-angiotensin system and found that gonadotropes
contain angiotensin II-like immunoreactivity (15). Recently we have shown
that norepinephrine acts via postsynaptic alpha-2 receptors in the
hypothalamus to inhibit ACTH and stimulate growth hormone secretion (17). I
can add that I am one of the few investigators who has successfully
hypophysectomized a deer (9) and, with Clegg and others, demonstrated that
light penetrates into the brain of mammals (7). I do not view this last as
one of my more weighty achievements, but it has certainly attracted
attention and generated peculiar comments."
Ganong was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, and entered Harvard
College (1941) just in time to be caught up in wartime disjointing of
college and professional education. Drafted into the U.S. Army and assigned
to the infantry, he finally was enrolled in the ASTP in Georgetown College
in Washington, D.C., for a year of premedical study and then assigned for
two years to the University of Virginia Medical School in Charlottesville
(1945-47). Harvard meanwhile decided that they could award him an A.B.
degree in 1946, and at long last (1947) he was able to transfer to the
Harvard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1949. For the next two
years he was a member of the house staff in medicine at Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital and then was recalled to the Army as a medical officer assigned to
duty in Japan and Korea. From 1952 to 1955 he was able to return to Harvard
as a research fellow in medicine and surgery for training in the
laboratories of George W. Thorn and David M. Hume, respectively. His
clinical research preparation came to an end in 1955, however, when he
accepted a position in the department of Leslie L. Bennett at the University
of California at Berkeley. Three years later the department was moved to San
Francisco, where by 1964 Ganong held the rank of professor. In 1982 he
became the Jack D. and DeLoris Lange Professor of Physiology. He served some
years as vice-chairman of the Department of Physiology, and from 1970 he has
been its chairman.
A member of APS from 1957, Ganong has served the Society in many
different capacities. In 1969-70 he was chairman of the Neuroendocrine
Discussion Group, one of the informal groups associated with APS. He was
elected to APS Council in 1975 and as president elect the following year. He
belongs to the category of former presidents who had originally intended to
practice medicine, as well as to the group who are graduates of Harvard
Medical School. As president, he initiated the Financial Development
Committee (chairman, 1980-83), which seeks alternative sources of support
for the Society to alleviate partially the dues burden on the membership.
His more recent services to APS are as a member of the council of the
Section on Endocrinology and Metabolism (1983-) and as a member of the
Publications Committee (1984-).
During the year Ganong was president of APS, three movements that had
been in progress earlier finally came to realization. One was broadening the
bases of membership, so that the Society might become more representative of
physiology as a whole, and inclusive rather than exclusive. Another was a
more active participation of members in both state and federal governmental
policies relating to biomedical research. The third was final settlement of
the question of equity of the several societies in the assets of FASEB.
Ganong has held major office also in most of the other professional and
scientific societies of which he is a member. He has been a member of
Council (1970-73) and chairman of the Nominating Committee (1980-81) of the
Endocrine Society, a member of Council (1972-76) and vice-president of the
International Society for Neuroendocrinology (1976-80), and a member of
Council (1974-75) and president (1976-77) of ACDP. For six years (1975-81)
he was a member of the U.S. National Committee for IUPS (chairman, 1976-79).
A member of the Council of Academic Societies of AAMC, he was on their
Administrative Board from 1981 to 1987. The California Heart Association
(1965-70), the Ciba Award Committee of AHA (1980-83), the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory (1975-82), and the Smokeless Tobacco Research Council (1983-) are
among the institutions he has served in consultation. For NIH he has been a
member of numerous study sections and panels, including the Neurology A
Study Section (1971-75) and the Task Force on Hypertension (1975-78).
Besides these he has served on various committees of the Society for
Experimental Biology and Medicine, the International Society of
Endocrinology, FASEB, and the Society for Neuroscience. Two of his
memberships are uncommon in APS: the society of Brigham Surgical Alumni and
the 38th Parallel (Korea) Medical Society. During his military service in
Korea he received a combat zone promotion from first lieutenant to captain.
Editorial responsibilities Ganong has fulfilled include the journals of
the Society (1960-66), Endocrinology (1961-73), Proceedings of the
Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine (1962-69), Medcom
(1968-78), Neuroendocrinology (1968-73), the Journal of
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (1969-75), and those he
currently holds for Neuroscience, the Italian Journal of
Physiological Sciences, and Excerpta Medica; he is currently
editor-in-chief of Neuroendocrinology.
Ganong earned distinction in each of the colleges where his peripatetic
career as a student took him. With his first formal venture into
neuroendocrinology he was awarded the Boylston Medical Society Prize in 1949
for his paper on "Control of ACTH secretion." Later honors include a
corresponding membership in the Chilean Endocrine Society (1966) and receipt
of the Golden Hippocrates Award presented by the Instituto Farmacoterapico
Italiano (1970). He presented the Sherrington Society Lecture in London
(1976) and the Starling Memorial Lecture in Jamaica (1978), received the
teaching award of ACDP (1978), and delivered the Centennial Distinguished
Lecture at the University of Arkansas (1979), the Nelson Lecture at Rutgers
University (1980), the Macallum Lecture at the University of Toronto (1980),
and the Jane Russell Wilhelmi Lecture at Emory University (1982). He became
a fellow of AAAS in 1980 and an honorary member of the Argentine Society of
Physiological Sciences in 1982.
Physiologists unfamiliar with the scope of Ganong's research will
nevertheless know of his textbooks and other volumes he has written or
edited: Review of Medical Physiology (Lange Medical Publications, Los
Altos, CA), now in its twelfth edition; the two-volume work on
Neuroendocrinology edited by Martini and Ganong (1966, Academic Press,
New York); and nine volumes of the series Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology
(first with Oxford University Press, New York, and then with Raven Press,
New York). In adding these titles to his list of favorite publications,
Ganong wrote, "It is obvious that I have invested a fair amount of libido in
"Review of Medical Physiology." Prospective textbook writers will be pleased
to learn this recipe for success.
Selected Publications
1. Stillman, J. S., and W. F. Ganong. The Guillain-Barre syndrome: report
of a case treated with ACTH and cortisone. N. Engl. J. Med. 246:
293-296, 1952.
2. Lown, B., W. F. Ganong, and S. A. Levine. The syndrome of short P-R
interval, normal QRS complex and paroxysmal rapid heart action.
Circulation 5: 693-706, 1952.
3. Ganong, W. F., and D. M. Hume. Absence of stress-induced and
"compensatory" adrenal hypertrophy in dogs with hypothalamic lesions.
Endocrinology 55: 474-483, 1954.
4. Ganong, W. F., D. S. Fredrickson, and D. M. Hume. The effect of
hypothalamic lesions on thyroid function in the dog. Endocrinology
57: 355-362, 1955.
5. Ganong, W. F., and P. J. Mulrow. Rate of change in sodium and
potassium excretion after injection of aldosterone into the aorta and renal
artery of the dog. Am. J. Physiol. 195: 337-342, 1958.
6. Ganong, W. F., and P. J. Mulrow. Evidence of secretion of an
aldosterone-stimulating substance by the kidney. Nature Lond. 190:
1115-1116, 1961.
7. Ganong, W. F., M. D. Shepherd, J. R. Wall, E. E. Van Brunt, and M.T.
Clegg. Penetration of light into the brain of mammals. Endocrinology
72: 962-963, 1963.
8. Lee, T. C., E. G. Biglieri, E. E. Van Brunt, and W. F. Ganong.
Inhibition of aldosterone secretion by passive transfer of antirenin
antibodies to dogs on a low sodium diet. Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med.
119: 315-318, 1965.
9. Hall, T. C., W. F. Ganong, and E. B. Taft. Hypophysectomy in the
Virginia deer: technique and physiologic consequences. Growth 30:
382-392, 1966.
10. Ganong, W. F., and A. T. Boryczka. The effect of a low sodium diet on
the aldosterone-stimulating activity of angiotensin II in dogs. Proc.
Soc. Exp. Biol.. Med. 124: 1230-1231, 1967.
11. Loeffler, J. R., J. R. Stockigt, and W. F. Ganong. The effect of
alpha- and beta-adrenergic blocking drugs on the increase in renin secretion
produced by stimulation of the renal nerves. Neuroendocrinology 10:
129-138, 1972.
12. Nolly, H. L., I. A. Reid, and W. F. Ganong. The effect of
theophylline and adrenergic blocking drugs on the renin response to
norepinephrine in vitro. Circ. Res. 35: 575-579, 1974.
13. Ganong, W. F. The brain and the endocrine system: a memoir. In:
Pioneers in Neuroendocrinology II edited by J. Meites, B. T. Donovan,
and S. M. McCann. New York: Plenum, 1978, p. 189-200.
14. Brownfield, M. S., I. A. Reid, D. Ganten, and W. F. Ganong.
Differential distribution of immunoreactive angiotensin and converting
enzyme in the brain. Neuroscience 7: 1759-1769, 1982.
15. Steele, M. K., M. S. Brownfield, and W. F. Ganong. Immunocytochemical
localization of angiotensin immunoreactivity in gonadotrops and lactotrops
of the rat anterior pituitary gland. Neuroendocrinology 35: 155-158,
1982.
16. Steele, M. K., R. V. Gallo, and W. F. Ganong. A possible role for the
brain renin-angiotensin system in the regulation of LH secretion. Am. J.
Physiol. 245 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 14):
R805-R810, 1983.
17. Ganong, W. F., J. Challett, H. Jones, Jr., S. L. Kaplan, M. Karteszi,
R. D. Stith, and L. D. Van de Kar. Further characterization of the putative
alpha-adrenergic receptors in the brain that affect blood pressure and the
secretion of ACTH, growth hormone and renin in dogs. Endocrinol. Exp.
16: 191-204, 1982.
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