News From Senior Physiologists

News From Senior Physiologists

Letters to Karl Wasserman
B. Theodore Cole writes: “I appreciate very much your greeting apropos the big 80th anniversary of day one for B. Theodore Cole. Mrs. Cole (Leona) and I also celebrated our 58th wedding anniversary this year. Thus, we have been doubly blessed.
    “I retired from teaching physiology to nurses, pharmacists and pre-meds for 41 years; first at LSU in Baton Rouge and then here at the University of South Carolina. I served as Head of the Department of Biology here at USC for 8½ years and retired in June 1987. I continued to teach one course each semester until 1995.
    “It is difficult to give up teaching. I continue to teach any group, small or large, that will sit and listen, reflecting on how “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) we are. Among those anxious to listen are a group of seniors who assemble for several weeks in the winter quarter at a Methodist Church locally. Like many seniors, these at the Shepherds Center are anxious to continue learning. Occasionally I have a retired physician in the class who never heard of Dr. William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin, Fred Banting and Charles Best.
    “I also spend five hours on Monday each week as a volunteer at Providence Hospital here in Columbia. My time is spent with clients in the Cardiac-Rehab Center, elaborating one on one concerning the cardiac cycle, coronary circulation and its role in a healthy heart. They love it and get a few questions answered that their busy physicians had no time to hear.
    “Thanks again for the birthday greetings and I hope that all continues to go well with you, your family and the Senior Physiologists Committee.”

Michael Barany writes: “Thank you for your birthday greeting and invitation to write a letter to The Physiologist.
    “When I first wrote to The Physiologist I was optimistic. I thought retirement is nothing else; just a change in the source of my salary from the State of Illinois’ payroll to that of the State Universities Retirement System. This idea was working for two years, when the continuation of my 18-year NIH grant was declined. Soon it turned out that I can not get grants from various agencies, including my own Graduate College, which kept me as a full professor. In the absence of funds, I edited the book Biochemistry of Smooth Muscle Contraction, 30 chapters, published by the Academic Press. The book got good reviews in Science and Nature, and it is considered as one of the textbooks in smooth muscle research. I was happy when Dr. John Barron, my previous postdoctoral associate, currently Associate Professor of Cardiology in the adjacent Rush Medical College, invited me to work with him on smooth muscle metabolism. I devised a method for measurement of 3H-H20 produced from 3H-labeled sugars and fatty acids in muscle, and we published a few papers and abstracts. This happy time was interrupted when Kate had to be hospitalized with endocarditis and soon thereafter her retina got detached. I have spent the last three years with Kate at home.
    “During this time, we prepared a home page, near to 100 pages, on “Biochemistry of Muscle Contraction” that contains selected topics from our class teachings, 1985-1995. This home page rapidly has spread over the Web; on average 500 files are being transferred per day to various countries all around the world. The home page became also part of the Biophysics Textbook OnLine, and I was asked to be the editor of the Muscle section of this textbook. Between 1997-2000, I was a member of the Senior Physiologist Committee, and enjoyed speaking and corresponding with physiologists of my age. Unexpectedly, I was reelected to the Committee and now I am serving my second term. Also while staying home, I organized the symposium of Muscle Research in the 20th Century that took place at the 2000 spring meeting of APS. Hugh Huxley, myself, John Gergely, and Clara Franzini-Armstrong were the speakers.
    “In the middle of 2000, I returned to the laboratory, to work on actin in smooth muscle. The Edgar Folk, Jr. Foundation for Senior Physiologists donated me $500, my department helps by giving supplies from the storeroom on a long-term payment basis, but my personal money is the main support of my research. Fortunately, throughout my life I was working in the lab with my own hands; thus, I have no difficulty carrying out the research virtually alone.
    “At the end of the 1990s, Kate and I were invited to write our autobiography to the Selected Topics in History of Biochemistry: Personal Recollections VI, an Elsevier series within Comprehensive Biochemistry. We described our 50-year marriage and scientific collaboration under the title, ”Strife and hope in the lives of a scientist couple.” The message that we want to send to the new generation of physiologists is: Strife and hope, and never give up. The day will come when life smiles on you. Serve science and humanity.”

Letters to Doug Stewart
H. Ted Hammel writes: “Thank you for your query about my state of being and raison d’etre. When my friends inquire, ‘How are you?’ my usual response, in jest, has been, ‘Worse than ever.’ At 80 years of age, getting better than ever is unrealistic. More recently, my response to, ‘How are you?’ has become, ‘Apoptosic.’
    “Until your letter, I had supposed that I had become persona non grata. Anyone daring to declare that Starling’s osmotic force is fiction, as I have done, must also know that the wagons of physiology will form the circle in defense against the ingnoramus. Of course, I know with certainty that Starling’s osmotic force cannot return ISF to the plasma of the capillary. This hypothetical force presumes that the colloidal proteins in plasma attract ISF, according to Starling, or they lower the concentrations of water in plasma, according to physiologists. Proteins do not act this way in plasma or in an osmometer. For more, see several of my articles on how solutes alter water in an aqueous solution. For example, 1) Hammel, H.T. (1994)       “How solutes alter water in aqueous solutions. The Journal of Physical Chemistry. 98:4196-4204. 2) Hammel, H.T. (1998) ‘Replacing Lewis’s theory with Hulett’s theory of altered chemical potentials of reacting constituents in solution.’ Recent Research Developments in Physical Chemistry: 2, 77-111. (Pandalai, S.G., Ed.) Transworld Research Network, Trivandrum, India. 3) Hammel, H.T. Boltzmann’s principle depicts distribution of water molecules between vapor and liquid for pure liquid and for aqueous solutions. The Journal of Physical Chemistry. 99:8392-8400, 1995. 4) Hammel, H.T. (1999) Evolving ideas about osmosis and capillary fluid exchange. 5) Hammel, H.T. and Brechue, W.F. (2000). Plasma-ISF fluid exchange in tissue is drive by diffusion of carbon dioxide and bicarbonate in presence of carbonic anhydrase. FASEB J. 14: Abstract 315.3.
“I have written a monograph entitled ‘Better Understanding of Solutions: How Solute Alters Water and More.’ The monograph is in three parts. Part I is based on Hulett’s theory of osmosis and covers the period when Pete Scholander and I were collaborating. Part II is autobiographical and tells how I came to collaborate with Scholander. Part III covers the progress made during the last 20 years since collaboration with Scholander ceased at his death in 1980. At this time, the monograph has not been published and does not have a publisher. Maybe later.
    “I have had engraved on my gravestone the following declaration: ‘A physiologist who measured xylem and phloem sap pressures in trees; who embraced Hulett’s theory of osmosis and who recognized the diffusion of bicarbonate ions as the principal osmotic effect in Starling’s hypothesis.’
    “When Scholander and I finished our monograph on ‘Osmosis and Tensile Solvent’ in 1976, I said to him, ‘Pete, you will never know the day when our ideas about osmosis become widely accepted.’ Twenty-five years later, I repeat the same statement, now applied to myself. I feel obliged, therefore, to engrave our views in granite.”

Letter to Eugene Renkin
Frank Craig writes: “Thanks for your favor of May 21. I always enjoy the letters from Senior Physiologists and admire the ones who keep up with the field. At Edgewood they reorganized the laboratories every few years and after the last one I was unable to adjust to the new priorities and retired in 1978 to enjoy the generosity of the tax-payers in my Civil Service Annuity—much nicer than a pension, don’t you think? Having been brought up in a strict school of Publish or Perish, I was casting about for something to do when I ran across a book called Ancetral Roots of Sixty Colonists and recognized a few of my ancestors. This opened a new field of research and thanks to the kindness of the editors, I was able to add a few more publications to my bibliography.”

Letter to Michael Barany
Sidney Schreiber writes: “I am honored to be requested to contact my colleagues on the occasion of my 80th birthday by reporting on my current activities for The Physiologist.
    “Five years ago I considered myself the most fortunate of men. At the age of 75, after a career as a physician and basic biochemistry research scientist, I was able to continue my work on a part-time basis, which left me time to garden, paint in oils, and see my children and grandchildren more often. However, macular degeneration changed my life’s plan. But, after a brief period of painful adjustment being legally blind, I find I still consider myself a fortunate man. After all, I survived three years in the 82nd Airborne Division in World War II, including D-Day, my marriage was a happy one, my daughter became a clinical neuropsychologist, my son became a physician also doing research, and my grandchildren are a joy.
    “Only my lifelong avocation of painting was in trouble! My paintings hang in London, New Zealand, San Francisco, Cleveland, Boston, and many other places. It was so important to me that I continue. Obviously, my present vision did not permit me to paint in the same manner as before, but after many trials I learned a way to paint and create emotion on the canvas without the detail I once used. I still find joy and excitement every time I pick up a paintbrush. The results on the canvas are not quite as they exist in my mind, but there is always the pleasure of creating something. I am now entered in a show in Massachusetts showing per- and post-macular degeneration paintings.
    “As for my scientific career, it continues as well. I now serve as Scientific Advisor for the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, which will support research in this field. A peer review committee is in place and grant requests are carefully examined.
    “To my younger colleagues, I say your happiness in later life lies in aggressively continuing your life’s interests.”

Letter to Martin Frank
Habeeb Bacchus writes: “Two years ago when I reached the age of 70 years, I received a letter from Robert Berne requesting information on my career at that time. I did not respond to that query as I preferred to wait until another landmark time in my career. I now respond as, at the time of the annual meetings of the American Physiological Society, I will have been a full member of the Society for 50 years. I am certain that if records of the Society are correct, you will find that I was the youngest person to be made a full member of the Society, at the age of 22 years. Perhaps I deserve a few paragraphs in the journal wherein I describe my professional history, both as a physiologist and later as a clinician who has never forgotten his physiological discipline.
    “My earliest independent research conducted in the Department of Physiology at George Washington University School of Medicine related to adrenal physiology. By that time it was becoming clear that there is a functional significance to the morphological zonation of the adrenal cortex. My contribution at that time was to show that “potassium chloride flooding” of rats (2.5% solution of KCl as the only aqueous source) was followed by hypertrophy of the zona glomerulosa of the adrenal, with no significant change in the inner zones. At that time also I found that this regimen resulted in a decreased heart size and weight compared to control animals. Since it was difficult to obtain reliable blood pressure measurements at that time, I used heart size and weight as an index of blood pressure. I thus concluded that potassium chloride reduced blood pressure. This was published in AJP in 1951. Animals with experimental hypertension (using hear weight as index) from sodium excess, or with exogenous mineralocorticoids) were protected from cardiac hypertrophy when given high potassium intakes. However, the hypertension secondary to experimental renal ischemia (induced by the Grollman operation, figure of eight ligature of one kidney, and removal of the contralateral kidney) was not relieved by the potassium chloride flooding. Adrenal morphological and cytochemical changes were also studied in those animals.
    “Another series of studies involved the role of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) in the adrenal cortex. George Sayers had shown that stimulation of the adrenals was followed by discharge of ascorbic acid from the adrenal cortex. I studied this by cytochemical methods. But the most significant outcome of such studies indicated that ascorbic acid affects several steps in the biosynthesis of adrenocortical hormones, ‘stimulating’ or supporting the early steps (hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, 11 ß hydroxylase) but suppressing the last step in the synthetic pathway. It is this step that is enhanced by discharge of ascorbic acid from the adrenal. I also studied the mutual interactions of the state of oxidation of ascorbic acid on adrenal hormone synthesis. My graduate students and I also studied the effect of ascorbic acid nutrition on degradation of adrenal hormones in vivo, and in vitro studies using liver slices; ascorbic acid protects these steroids from hepatic degradation. While studies with ascorbic acid excess employed rats, we had to use guinea pigs to study ascorbic acid deficiency (as only primates, guinea pigs and fruit-bats cannot synthesize ascorbic acid Vitamin C.
    “The effect of ascorbic acid on carbohydrate metabolism was also studied. The most significant finding was that ascorbic acid deficient guinea pigs developed a most severe form of insulin resistance, compared to pair-fed control animals. This study employed a primitive glucose-insulin clamp technique. We also showed that the process of lipolysis is significantly affected by Vitamin C and its deficiency.
    “My subsequent work related to more clinical research (done while I was at NIH). I participated with Donald Tschudy in studies on protein and amino acid turnover in health and disease. I also participated in Don Tschudy’s studies on porphyrin metabolism. After I left NIH, my major emphasis, in addition to clinical medicine, was in clinical investigations on glycoproteins and acid micopolysaccharides in cancer, as well as in other disorders. I was invited to write review articles and book chapters on many of these topics.
    “I served as Chief of Medicine at Riverside General Hospital (in California) and as Professor of Medicine at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. In these roles, I taught thousands of medical students and medical residents. In those roles I was named Teacher of the Year more than once, but I am proudest of being named Lifetime Educator by my trainees at Loma Linda University in 1994. I retired from those activities in 1994, but was invited to serve as Department Chairman at Riverside County Regional Medical Center (formerly RGH), and to visit my old institution once week every other month to give lectures and conduct teaching rounds. This involves traveling 420 miles each way, as I now live in the Monterey Bay area.
    “Throughout these years of research and clinical activities, I maintained a strong interest in the APS, and have always emphasized the physiological and metabolic basis of clinical problems. I expect that I shall be requesting retired status from the Society in the near future, and to be spending more time with my grandchildren, currently eight in number.”