{"title":"The terms ‘autacoid’, ‘hormone’ and ‘chalone’ and how they have shifted with time","authors":"J. M. Keppel Hesselink","doi":"10.1111/aap.12037","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>\n \n </p><ol>\n \n \n <li>The increase of knowledge in a particular field (endocrinology) can be understood if one follows how certain key concepts were constructed and transformed over time. To explore such construction and transformation (shifts in meaning), we studied the use of the concepts ‘autacoid’ and ‘chalone’ in a period of one century (1916–2016), since the introduction of these concepts by the British professor of physiology Sir Sharpey-Schäfer.</li>\n \n \n <li>We could identify that the use of ‘autacoid’ shifted from a very broad category encompassing both stimulating and inhibiting hormones, in the period 1916–1960, to a much more specific use of the term for locally produced bioactive molecules, from the 1960s onwards.</li>\n \n \n <li>Histamine was the first compound seen as an ‘autacoid’, followed by prostaglandins, ATP, ADP and bradykinin, and from 1993 onwards, compounds such as ‘palmitoylethanolamide’ were also classified as ‘autacoids’. For ‘chalone’, a comparable shift was noticed around the 1960s, when the concept suddenly changed from the category of inhibiting hormones into a substance that is produced within a tissue, inhibiting mitosis of the cells of that tissue. For both concept shifts, we could not find any argument.</li>\n \n \n <li>Around 1980, authors started to relate autacoids to various promising indications in the field of inflammation and immune modulation. The Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini gave an extra dimension to the concept autacoid in 1993, and introduced a new class of compounds modulating mast cells, the ALIAmides (from Autacoid Local Inflammation Antagonist), of which palmitoylethanolamide was the prototype. Our exploration demonstrates that biomedical concepts can be constructed and defined differently as time goes by, while concept transformations seem to emerge without arguments.</li>\n </ol>\n \n </div>","PeriodicalId":100151,"journal":{"name":"Autonomic and Autacoid Pharmacology","volume":"35 4","pages":"51-58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2016-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1111/aap.12037","citationCount":"8","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Autonomic and Autacoid Pharmacology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aap.12037","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 8
Abstract
The increase of knowledge in a particular field (endocrinology) can be understood if one follows how certain key concepts were constructed and transformed over time. To explore such construction and transformation (shifts in meaning), we studied the use of the concepts ‘autacoid’ and ‘chalone’ in a period of one century (1916–2016), since the introduction of these concepts by the British professor of physiology Sir Sharpey-Schäfer.
We could identify that the use of ‘autacoid’ shifted from a very broad category encompassing both stimulating and inhibiting hormones, in the period 1916–1960, to a much more specific use of the term for locally produced bioactive molecules, from the 1960s onwards.
Histamine was the first compound seen as an ‘autacoid’, followed by prostaglandins, ATP, ADP and bradykinin, and from 1993 onwards, compounds such as ‘palmitoylethanolamide’ were also classified as ‘autacoids’. For ‘chalone’, a comparable shift was noticed around the 1960s, when the concept suddenly changed from the category of inhibiting hormones into a substance that is produced within a tissue, inhibiting mitosis of the cells of that tissue. For both concept shifts, we could not find any argument.
Around 1980, authors started to relate autacoids to various promising indications in the field of inflammation and immune modulation. The Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini gave an extra dimension to the concept autacoid in 1993, and introduced a new class of compounds modulating mast cells, the ALIAmides (from Autacoid Local Inflammation Antagonist), of which palmitoylethanolamide was the prototype. Our exploration demonstrates that biomedical concepts can be constructed and defined differently as time goes by, while concept transformations seem to emerge without arguments.
一个特定领域(内分泌学)的知识增长可以理解,如果一个人遵循某些关键概念是如何随着时间的推移而构建和转变的。为了探索这种结构和转换(意义的转变),我们研究了一个世纪(1916-2016)期间“autotacoid”和“chalone”概念的使用,因为这些概念是由英国生理学教授Sir Sharpey-Schäfer引入的。我们可以确定,在1916-1960年期间,“自体类”的使用从一个非常广泛的类别,包括刺激和抑制激素,转变为更具体的术语,用于本地生产的生物活性分子,从20世纪60年代开始。组胺是第一个被视为“类自身”的化合物,其次是前列腺素、ATP、ADP和缓激素,从1993年起,“棕榈酰乙醇酰胺”等化合物也被归类为“类自身”。“chalone”在20世纪60年代前后出现了类似的变化,当时这个概念突然从抑制激素的范畴转变为组织内产生的一种物质,可以抑制该组织细胞的有丝分裂。对于这两种观念的转变,我们都找不到任何论据。1980年前后,作者开始将类自身素与炎症和免疫调节领域的各种有希望的适应症联系起来。1993年,诺贝尔奖得主丽塔·列维-蒙塔奇尼(Rita levy - montalcini)给自体类细胞的概念增加了一个维度,并介绍了一类调节肥大细胞的新化合物ALIAmides(来自自体类局部炎症拮抗剂),其中棕榈酰乙醇酰胺是其原型。我们的探索表明,随着时间的推移,生物医学概念可以被不同地构建和定义,而概念转换似乎没有争论。