KARL LANDSTEINER: BIOGRAPHY, CONTRIBUTIONS AND DISCOVERIES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) was a pathologist born in Vienna (Austria), a nationalized North American, who marked a before and after in the history of medicine. Not in vain was he awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930.

His work and contributions remain current today, as his discovery of blood groups allows millions of safe blood transfusions to be performed daily.

His career does not only go there. It is estimated that this doctor published more than three hundred and fifty works. Even the possibility that several of his investigations have not yet come to light is not ruled out.

His most important works include his annotations on blood and its characteristics, and the contributions related to the Landsteiner-Fanconi-Andersen and Donath-Landsteiner syndromes.

Various scholars assert that this pathologist was shy but very self-critical, a virtue that made him work almost until the end of his days in order to perfect his theories.

Biography

He was born in Vienna, Austria, on June 14, 1868, product of the union between Leopold Landsteiner and Fanny Hess. His father, despite being a lawyer, was a renowned journalist and editor; for his part, his mother dedicated himself to housework.

At just 6 years old, Karl lost his father figure and his family pushed him forward. This fact made him become even more attached to his mother, for whom he felt special love.

Training

Thanks to his intelligence and inspired by the work of Ernst Ludwig, as a 17-year-old he decided to study medicine at the University of Vienna, from which he graduated in 1891. From that moment he began to be interested in human chemistry and that was evident. reflected in his stay in Germany and Switzerland.

Specifically, he worked in the laboratories of Arthur Rudolf Hantzsch, in Zurich; Emil Fischer, in Wurzburg; and Eugen von Bamberger, in Munich. In the three establishments he published various investigations: this was the beginning of a long and successful career.

He returned to Vienna with the aim of increasing his knowledge; there she completed her doctorate in medical clinic.

Trajectory

From 1894 on, Karl Landsteiner's experience grew. He worked for a year with the surgeon Eduard Albert and later worked at the Institute of Hygiene as an assistant to the Austrian scientist Max von Gruber. In 1899 he was part of the Department of Pathological Anatomy, where he was hired to perform autopsies.

From 1908 to 1919 he remained in the direction of the Wilhelminenspital laboratories in Vienna. However, his busy schedule did not prevent him from being an ad honorem professor of Pathological Anatomy at his alma mater since 1911.

Emigration

After the First World War, this doctor decided to emigrate to The Hague, Holland, where he served as a prosector. This city was not his final destination, since the end of his days were spent in New York, the United States, the country that granted him nationality.

In the current most populous city in North America, it belonged to the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. He remained in this organization until his retirement in 1939; There he worked alongside great personalities, such as researchers Philip Levine and Alexander Wiener.

Death

Karl Landsteiner died on June 26, 1943 in the metropolis that gave him shelter for the last years of his life. The cause of his death was a coronary thrombosis.

Awards

Due to his talent, dedication and discipline, this nationalized American received several prizes and awards. These include the Paul Ehrlich medal and the French Legion of Honor.

Likewise, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from four universities: Cambridge, Chicago, Libre de Bruxelles and Harvard.

His performance made him a recognized public figure throughout the world, a merit that made him part of a long list of scientific societies.

Some of these were the National Academy of Science, the American Philosophical Society, the American Society of Naturalists, the American Society of Immunologists, and the French Academy of Medicine.

He was also a member of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Medical Chirurgical Society of Edimbourgh, the Belgian Society of Biology, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and the Accademia dei Lincei, among others.

Contributions

Karl Landsteiner dedicated his existence to medicine. He dedicated part of his time and knowledge to making advances in different areas, investigations that were a milestone in various pathologies and allowed to advance novel procedures for the time.

Many of his contributions were not considered discoveries at the time, but later they were starting points for techniques that completely changed the application of medicine and contributed to the main mission of this science: saving lives.

The most important contributions of Karl Landsteiner for the world of health were the following:

Poliomyelitis

This disease is defined as an infectious disease produced by a virus that attacks the spinal cord and atrophies the muscles, resulting in paralysis in advanced cases.

Thanks to the efforts of this doctor, it was possible to better study his transmission system through examinations with monkeys, whom he infected by crushing marrow of children who died from this condition. This research was published in 1909.

Syphilis

Because of the good results shown by monkeys for disorders, Landsteiner again used monkeys to test for syphilis.

This study demolished myths and beliefs, since it managed to demonstrate that the union of the blood of one individual with another occurred due to their characteristics and not due to pathology.

Immune system

It was a subject that this pathologist was passionate about. He began to get involved in this matter when he was in Holland, where he was concerned about haptens, defined by scientists as a chemical substance that has a low molecular weight and that, together with the protein albumin, promotes the creation of antibodies.

The incorporation of this element was very important, since it was able to delve into the allergic reactions of individuals to certain and certain elements and, therefore, in their treatment.

His love for this area was so great that, in New York, he studied external contact dermatitis.

Landsteiner-Fanconi-Andersen syndrome

In the company of two doctors, this Austrian helped define what is known as Landsteiner-Fanconi-Andersen syndrome.

This disease occurs in the pancreas and can be accompanied by multiple symptoms and conditions.

Donath-Lansdteiner syndrome

It is a class of hemolytic anemia that sensitizes the muscles to low temperatures. It is also known as paroxysmal frigore hemoglobinuria.

Discoveries

Landsteiner worked hard all his life for the development of medicine. Many were the explorations, but the most important milestone of this doctor consists of the identification of blood groups, a success that forever changed this science and would give way to effective cures and procedures.

Blood groups

From a young age, Landsteiner was interested in blood and its peculiarities, a curiosity that motivated him to delve into the capacity, functions and characteristics of this red liquid transported throughout the body by blood vessels.

Since 1492 blood transfusions were attempted, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Then, in 1667, the physician Jean-Baptiste Denis supplied a few drops of ram's blood to a person without any further complications.

Faults

This event is recognized as the first positive blood transfusion. However, the experiment was not repeated with good results.

In part, the failures of the time were due to the little knowledge that was had about this substance, a fact that changed after 1901, the date on which this doctor began his studies.

It took him two years to verify that when one person received blood from another, it clumped together and destroyed the blood vessels.

He soon realized that there were similar characteristics in the blood of relatives and relatives that could even help determine paternity in cases of doubt, leading him to conclude that there were singularities that were inherited from one generation to the next.

The study was not easy. He carefully examined the blood of 22 people, including himself and several of his team.

Extracted the blood, transformed it into a serum. Later, he separated the red blood cells and washed them and then immersed them in a physiological solution. This procedure was repeated with each individual and observed their blood with great care and dedication.

The fruits of this work were tabulated and the discovery was fully completed in 1909, when four blood groups were identified that are now recognized throughout the world: A, B, O and AB. The first three were revealed by Landsteiner and the last by two of his disciples: Alfredo de Castello and Adriano Sturli.

Antigens

In the following years many became interested in the subject and supplemented Landsteiner's theories and work. Some dedicated themselves to exploring more characteristics of the blood such as antigens or agglutinogens, a substance that also made this Austrian by birth curious.

Antigens are foreign elements that cause the body to generate defenses against itself, making antibodies that help fight viruses and other agents.

It is a relevant concept because it is the cause of the incompatibility and rejection of blood groups. It should be noted that this definition is absent in the AB classification.

This means that each kind of blood has its own agglutinogen. In 1927, in collaboration with the immunothematic Philip Levine, he determined the presence of three unknown antigens: M, N and P.

Later, in 1940, together with the expert in biology Alexander Salomon Wiener, he found another one called the Rh factor, a concept that is familiar because it remains today.

At present, 42 different antigens have been found present in human red blood cells.

Legacy

There is no doubt: Landsteiner's discovery led to much research, perfecting the technique of blood transfusion and studying the characteristics of this red liquid that carries oxygen, nutrients and waste.

This legacy was such that many practices of this type are carried out every day in any healthcare center located anywhere in the world, due to the massification of this doctor's knowledge.

Unlike in 1900, it no longer poses any risk to patients and cases of hemolytic reactions by rejecting blood have been minimized.

It is estimated that this doctor has saved millions of lives even after his death, because there are now fewer complications after injuries and during surgeries, and more cures for blood diseases in humans.

Landsteiner's discovery also brought secondary benefits. Thanks to this finding, studies of deoxyribonucleic acid, known as DNA, were developed. This has further developed genetic testing and the determination of kinship between one person and another.

Legal aspect

The judicial area has also taken advantage of this. In previous years tests were conducted to identify a person's blood group, thus increasing the chances of their guilt in a crime.

However, at that time there was not 100% certainty that the blood at a crime scene belonged to a specific person. More recently, DNA analysis is an irrefutable acknowledgment of perpetrators that leaves no room for doubt.

In conclusion, Landsteiner's work contributed to medicine and justice, areas that welcome the intervention of this doctor, who dedicated his life almost entirely to the blood that circulates through the human being.

Thanks to his contributions, Landsteiner became one of the main characters in the medical history not only of a country, but of humanity.

References

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