Dora Jacobsohn

Dora Elisabeth Jacobsohn (1908–1983) was a German-Swedish physiologist and endocrinologist. Considered one of the early pioneers of the field of neuroendocrinology,[1] she is best known for her work with Geoffrey Harris showing that the anterior pituitary gland is controlled by the hypothalamus via the hypophyseal portal system.

Dora E. Jacobsohn
Born
Dora Elisabeth Jacobsohn

(1908-03-01)March 1, 1908
Berlin, Germany
DiedOctober 31, 1983(1983-10-31) (aged 75)
Lund, Sweden
NationalityGerman, Swedish
Scientific career
Fieldsendocrinology, neuroendocrinology

Biography

Jacobsohn was born in Berlin in 1908.[1] She earned her M.D. in Germany in 1933, but she was not allowed to practice medicine in Germany because she was Jewish.[2] Fleeing Nazi Germany, Jacobsohn moved to Sweden in 1934, where she had family.[2] There, she met Axel Westman at the Uppsala University Hospital, who permitted her to observe and assist in his endocrinological research on ovulation and reproduction in hypophysectomized (pituitary removed) animals.[3][2] Although Jacobsohn was not permitted to do research as she was a foreigner without a Swedish degree, she worked with Westman at Lund University and ran clinical hormone assays for the hospital. Nonetheless, she published over 22 research papers during this 10 year collaboration.[2][3] In 1944, she gained Swedish citizenship and in 1948, a Swedish medical degree, with a thesis on mammary gland development.[2] This allowed her to finally become a professor at Lund University.[3] In 1952, the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund changed their rules to accept women, and she was elected a society Fellow.[2][3] In 1964, she was promoted to Director of Experimental Endocrinology at Lund University.[3]

Jacobsohn never married, and died in 1983 after a nearly year-long coma due to a traffic accident.[3]

Research contributions

In collaboration with Geoffrey Harris at Cambridge, Jacobsohn performed a series of elegant transplantation experiments, showing that pituitary grafts could only stimulate ovulation when in connection with the hypothalamus / mid brain, not the temporal lobe or other parts of the body.[4][5] This first showed that the anterior pituitary must be controlled by, and in contact with, the brain via the hypothalamus. Further, they showed that the blood vessels (via the hypophyseal portal system), rather than nervous stimulation, was necessary for stimulating the anterior pituitary.[4] This work founded the brain's role in hormonal regulation, helping to establish the field of neuroendocrinology.

She also did work showing that the posterior pituitary is required for milk ejection, later discovered to be mediated by the hormone oxytocin.[5] Later in her career, she studied the effects of androgens and sex steroids on sexual development in rodents.[6]

gollark: Well, people in those cities can just not go there.
gollark: I don't think that would... function at all.
gollark: Wait, 10k per *month*, not per *year*?
gollark: You can *also* work out exactly the parameters to tax people to generate precisely the amount of revenue you need, if you know income distribution, with the unlimited power of integration™.
gollark: The cool™ way would be using an actual continuous mathematical formula of some kind instead of the insane "bracket" system.

References
  1. Breatnach, C.S.; Moynihan, J. B. (2013). "First ladies in laying the foundation of neuroendocrinology". Irish Journal of Medical Science. 182 (1): 143–147. doi:10.1007/s11845-012-0830-9. PMID 22581099. S2CID 8177884.
  2. Bettendorf, G (1995). "Jacobsohn, Dora Elizabeth". In Bettendorf, G (ed.). Dora Jacobsohn. Zur Geschichte der Endokrinologie und Reproduktionsmedizin. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer. pp. 261–264. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-79152-9_106. ISBN 978-3-642-79153-6.
  3. "skbl.se - Dora Elisabeth Jacobsohn". www.skbl.se. Retrieved 2018-12-21.
  4. Harris, G; Jacobsohn, D; Adrian, E. D. (1952). "Functional grafts of the anterior pituitary gland". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences. 139 (895): 263–276. doi:10.1098/rspb.1952.0011. PMID 14911829.
  5. Meites, Joseph, ed. (2012). Pioneers in Neuroendocrinology II. Springer Science and Business. ISBN 9781461340270.
  6. "Dora Jacobsohn's research works | University of Bergen, Bergen (UiB) and other places". ResearchGate. Retrieved 2018-12-21.
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