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Understanding the Role of the Pancreas in Digestion: Placing Current Understanding in a Historical Perspective
Sponsored by APS History of Physiology Group

The purpose of the symposium is to trace the historical development of pancreatic physiology and show how it has led to current paradigms of function and can predict areas where progress should lead to a better understanding of the gland.  The symposium will be introduced by Joel Adelson, who will review original ideas of pancreatic structure and function prior to the 19th century, the work of Claude Bernard on the role of the pancreas in fat digestion, and introduce the issue of nerves vs. hormones in the control of the pancreas.  This will be followed by a talk by Daniel P. Todes  (author of “Pavlov’s Physiology Factory”) on Pavlov's scientific vision and his practices in the generation and interpretation of experimental data on pancreatic secretion.  John Henderson (author of “A Life of Ernest Starling”) will then cover the work of Ernest Starling and the discovery of secretin, the first hormone, which controls the secretion of pancreatic juice.  John Williams will take up the control of acinar function in mid-20th century and review the importance of the pancreas in defining the secretory pathway and the importance of calcium and inositol phosphates as intracellular regulators.  He will summarize the current state of reductionist approaches and how this is being put back in the animal through transgenic studies.  Joel Adelson will then summarize the presentations and predict how current understanding and experimental approaches will allow us to revisit some of the questions Pavlov and others couldn’t answer on the role of the pancreas in digestion.