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Sune Bergström—Nobel Prize for Prostaglandin Studies

1998; Elsevier BV; Volume: 73; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0025-6196(11)63731-2

1942-5546

Marc A. Shampo, Robert A. Kyle,

Inflammatory mediators and NSAID effects

Swedish biochemist-physician Sune K. Bergström was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for his work on the isolation, identification, and analysis of prostaglandins. He was the first to demonstrate the existence of more than one prostaglandin, and he determined the structures of two of them. Bergström shared the 1982 Nobel Prize with his countryman Bengt Samuelsson (1934) and EnglishresearcherJohnRobertVane(1927). Samuelsson was instrumental in determining the pathway of the synthesis of prostaglandins and also in finding the mechanisms by which the body eliminates prostaglandins. Vane, working independently in England, described another important component of the prostaglandin system, the prostacyclins, known inhibitors of platelet aggregation and powerful vasodilators. Bergström was born on Jan. 10, 1916, in Stockholm, Sweden. After completing secondary school studies in 1934, he went to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and became an assistant to J. Erik Jorpes (1894-1973), who was researching the clinical use of heparin, a drug that interferes with blood coagulation. Jorpes encouraged Bergström to study the biochemistry of lipids (fats) and steroids (including bile acid). With Jorpes' sponsorship, Bergström went to the University of London (England) in 1938 to study the biochemistry of bile acid (compounds secreted by the cells of the liver and transported by the bile ducts to the small intestines, where they prepare cholesterol and other lipids for digestion and absorption). His studies there were interrupted by the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945). From 1940 to 1941, Bergström was a research fellow at Columbia University in New York City, and he held the same position at the Squibb Institute for Medical Research in New Jersey from 1941 to 1942. In 1942, he returned to Sweden to become a researcher at the Nobel Institute of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, where he studied the auto-oxidation of linoleic acid, a constituent of certain vegetable oils and an essential fatty acid in the human diet. He discovered that an enzyme, lipoxygenase, is necessary for the oxidation of linoleic acid. Bergström remained at the Karolinska Institute until 1946. While there, he collaborated with Hugo Theorell (1903-1982) on research into the purification of lipoxygenase, which they accomplished in 1945. That same year, Swedish physician and 1970 Nobel laureate Ulf von Euler (1905-1983) gave Bergström some prostaglandin extract, from which he purified and isolated prostaglandin. In 1946, Bergström studied at Basel University in Switzerland. He returned to Sweden in 1947 and became a professor of chemistry at the University of Lund (southern Sweden), where he resumed his research on prostaglandins. In 1958, he became a professor of chemistry at the Karolinska Institute, a position he held until 1980. He was appointed dean of the medical faculty there in 1963 and rector in 1969. In 1977, he retired as rector but continued his research activities. His last years of research were devoted to study of the effects of prostaglandins on reproduction, including their ability to interrupt pregnancy. During the 1950s and 1960s, Bergström and his staff conducted additional investigations on prostaglandins, and by 1957, they had isolated and purified small amounts of two prostaglandin compounds. Their studies provided the first description of the chemical structure of the prostaglandins. By 1962, they had isolated and determined the structures of six prostaglandins. The research team (including Samuelsson) learned that arachidonic acid and the enzyme needed to convert it into prostaglandins are present in all nucleated animal cells and that various tissues synthesize specific prostaglandins, which in turn perform particular biologic functions. The two best-known prostaglandins are the E and F series. The E series prostaglandins are vasodilators that relax smooth muscles in the wall of blood vessels, decrease blood pressure, and may be useful in treating patients who have peripheral vascular disease. In addition, these prostaglandins protect the lining of the stomach from the formation of ulcers and from the toxic effects of aspirin and indomethacin (an anti-inflammatory drug). The F series prostaglandins are vasoconstrictors—that is, they stimulate contraction of smooth muscles in the walls of blood vessels and thereby increase blood pressure. They also stimulate the contraction of the muscles of the uterus. Besides the Nobel Prize, Bergström has received many awards and honors, and his work on prostaglandins has stimulated further research in that field. He was honored on a stamp issued in 1996 by his native Sweden.