Life at the Cell and Below-Cell Level. The Hidden History of a Fundamental Revolution in Biology
"Dr. Ling is one of the most inventive biochemist I have ever met." |
Chapter 8. Aftermath of the Rout (p. 40-42) |
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The long-term outcome of this rout of the
protoplasm-oriented cell physiologists by A. V. Hill was devastating. The
iconoclastic and often brilliant ideas and courageous voices of Martin Fischer,
Herbert Roaf, Benjamin Moore, Ross Gortner, W.W. Lepeschkin
vanished from the scene. It is in this "purified" silence that my
career as a cell physiologist began in Chicago.
8.1
The tiny Hungarian enclave under E. Ernst Like Fischer, Moore, Roaf
and others before him, Eugene Ernst (Ernst Jeno)
(1895-1981) also believed that the membrane theory was wrong.83 Nor did he believe that cell water is normal liquid water
and that cell K+ is free. In anticipation of work to be described below [11.2],
I may mention that Ernst's study of water sorption of frog muscle and gelatin
was at a much lower range of relative vapor pressure than that of the normal
physiological environment. In fact, most of their data points on frog muscle
correspond to a final water content 10% or less of the
total water content. The few data points corresponding to higher vapor
pressures are too scattered to assess their true significance. This scattering
could reflect too short an equilibration time (2 to 3 days),399
(see end of [11.2]). Professor Ernst died in 1981. His work was continued
by his student, Professor Joseph Tigyi and later by
Professor Miklós Kellermayer
and his group at the University of Pécs.85 In 1994, the University of Pécs
kindly awarded me an honorary doctoral degree.
8.2.
The Leningrad school under Nasonov and later, Troshin. Dmitrii Nasonov
(1895-1957) was born in Warsaw, the son of a zoology professor. Nasonov started out as a microanatomist,
studying at one time at Columbia University in New York under cytologist E. B.
Wilson, mentioned earlier. Nasonov was a decorated
war hero in the siege of Leningrad during World War II. After the war, he
returned to science and held the position of the Director of the Institute of
Cytology in the same city. With a solid foundation of cell anatomy, Nasonov's career as a cell physiologist was distinguished
by his unwavering conviction that a sound cell physiology must rest upon a
correct cell anatomy. And that a correct cell anatomy is impossible without
taking into account that the cell is solid and made of protoplasm. His
protein theory of cell damage and excitation illustrates the general
direction of his own and his immediate associates
research.86 Nasonov also introduced his phase theory of
permeability and bioelectrical potentials—contending that cells do not possess
a cell membrane with varying permeability86 ð 164 and that an electrical potential difference occurs only across the
surface of injured protoplasm but not across the surface of normal resting
cells. This is how Nasonov described it in his own
words: "According to our theory, the electromotive force arises only at
the moment of injury or excitation when the electrodes (electrolytes
?, query of G.L.) are released from their linkage with the
protein substrate. In this respect our theory resembles the alteration
theory of Hermann (1885)." 86 p 178; 87; 15 p 20 I disagree to varying degrees with Nasonov on these two specific concepts. Thus the two-fold
increase of permeability to sucrose following cell amputation offers one piece
of evidence for the existence of a diffusion barrier (or cell membrane) at the
normal cell surface (Table 1, see also [13.6]). The exploration with the
Gerard-Graham-Ling capillary glass microelectrode88 makes it hard
to deny the existence of a potential difference across the healthy normal
resting cell membrane—in harmony with the "pre-existence theory" of
cell potentials first offered by L. Hermann's teacher, Emil DuBois-Reymond.89
I
shall return to the question of why Nasonov believed
that there is no cell membrane. Differences in some specific issues notwithstanding, I
have great admiration for the courage and originality of this remarkable
investigator. His, Aizenberg's and Kamnev's demonstration that permeant
solutes can cause sustained shrinkage of living cells described in [4.1(3)] is
but one of their landmark discoveries. Other major contributions from the Soviet
school of cell physiology are described in his monograph, "Local Reaction
of Protoplasm and Gradual Excitation"86 and in his student,
A.S. Troshin's monograph, which will be reviewed
next. The Institute of Cytology at Leningrad survived Nasonov's death in 1957 and its directorship went to his prize pupil, Aphanasij S. Troshin, or simply A.S. Troshin.
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