Lina Stern
Born(1878-08-26)26 August 1878
Liepāja, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire
Died7 March 1968(1968-03-07) (aged 89)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Alma materUniversity of Geneva
Known forThe first female professor at the University of Geneva, the first female member of the USSR Academy of Sciences
AwardsStalin Prize (1943)
Scientific career
Fieldsblood–brain barrier, biochemistry, neuroscience
InstitutionsMoscow 2nd Medical Institute, Institute of Physiology, Biophysics Institute

Lina Solomonovna Stern or Shtern (Russian: Лина Соломоновна Штерн; 26 August 1878 – 7 March 1968) was a Soviet biochemist, physiologist and humanist whose medical discoveries saved thousands of lives at the fronts of World War II. She is best known for her pioneering work on the blood–brain barrier, which she described as hemato-encephalic barrier in 1921.[1]

Life and career

On August 26, 1878, Lina Stern was born Liepāja (today Liepāja, Latvia), the largest city in the Courland Region situated in western Latvia. [1] Stern was a Jewish neurophysiologist and a biochemist. In 1898, She studied at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. However, before going to Switzerland, she tried to gain admission to Moscow University. [1] Due to her Jewish background, it was very difficult for her to gain admission into Russian Universities, which is why she had to study abroad instead.

In 1903, she wrote her doctoral dissertation on motor function of the urethra and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine.[1] Despite the fact that Switzerland was more liberal than other European countries, Stern still had no professional perspectives there. She returned to her Liepāja. There, she passed the exams to get her Doctor of Medicine degree in Russia.[1] The reason she did this was because the policies at the time did not view a certificate from a foreign university to be acceptable. She was preparing to search for a medical job in Russia, but Jean-Louis Prévost (the head of the Department of Physiology at the University of Geneva) invited her to work as his assistant at the department. She accepted his invitation.[1]

From 1904 to 1922, Stern worked with Frédéric Battelli to conduct original research into chemio-physiology. During that time period, they published 54 articles on the problem of cellular metabolism. In 1912, Battelli and Stern, along with Torsten Thunberg, “discovered that minced animal tissues contain substances that can transfer hydrogen atoms from specific intracellular organic acids to methylene blue dye, reducing it to a colorless form.”[1] Their research was later on able to help Hans Krebs (biochemist) and his groundbreaking work on cellular respiration

Due to her groundbreaking research and hard work, the University of Geneva allowed her to add Physiological Chemistry as an independent field of study to the curriculum of the medical faculty. In 1918, In 1918 a new department of Physiological Chemistry was established, and Lina Stern became the head of it. This makes her the first ever woman to be awarded professional rank at the University of Geneva.[1]

It was from there that her research into the physiology of the central nervous system began – partly influenced by her friendship with Constantin von Monakow. Initially, Giuseppe Pagano, Professor of Chemical Physiology at the Medical School of University of Palermo, started experimenting on animals to learn more about motor response and the cerebellum. “Stern and her associate E. Rothlin replicated Pagano's experiment using more accurate methods.”[2] This was the start of Stern’s lifelong research into the cerebrospinal fluid. Her research led her to groundbreaking conclusions about the blood-brain barrier.[1]

"In April 21, 1921, Stern introduced the term “blood-brain barrier” at the Medical Society of Geneva”.[1] At that time, she was already well known in the world of academic science. However, she also worked as a consultant for several pharmaceutical companies.

After Stern receives an invitation to head the chair of physiology at the Second Moscow State University in 1924, she accepts and arrives in Moscow on March 31, 1925. She is 48 years old in 1925. Her entire life was devoted to science, and she accomplished quite a lot in her first three years as the chair of the department.[1] On April 1, 1929, a new Institute of physiology was opened in the USSR Academy of Sciences, and Stern became the director. She was very active in the scientific community and well-known amongst her colleagues. In 1939 she became the first female full member of the Academy (academician).[1][3] In 1943 she won the Stalin Prize.[4]

1939 marked when the agreement the USSR signed with Fascist Germany. Stern was open with her disapproval of Soviet foreign policy. Due to this disapproval, she was imprisoned and exiled to Dzhambul (current Taraz), Kazakhstan. After her exile (in 1954), Stern (now 76) continued her scientific research – including thorough experiments on the blood-brain barrier. On March 7, 1968, Lina Stern passed away.

Research on the blood–brain barrier

The blood–brain barrier refers to a diffusion barrier formed by the endothelial walls of the blood vessels and capillaries in the brain.[5] This barrier prevents most substances in the blood from entering the brain while allowing small molecules like oxygen and carbon dioxide to diffuse freely. While working at the University of Geneva, Stern published a series of studies demonstrating the existence of the blood-brain barrier with colleague Raymond Gautier.[6][7] Beginning in 1918, the two performed systematic experiments on the movement of various substances from the blood into the nervous system and estimated the extent to which these substances were able to permeate the brain. From these studies they were able to conclude that there exists a barrier between the blood and brain, which they termed in French "barrière hématoencéphalique".[8] In a 1934 paper, Stern also independently introduced the notions of barrier selectivity and barrier resistance, realizing that the blood–brain barrier both selectively allows certain substances to enter the brain and protects the internal milieu of the brain from that of the blood.[9] Today these are acknowledged as two of the main functions of the blood–brain barrier.

Activism and persecutions

A member of the Women's Anti-Fascist Committee and the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) since the outbreak of World War II, Stern was the sole survivor out of 15 arrested and convicted to death sentence when the JAC was eradicated in January 1949. Her death sentence was changed to a prison term by Joseph Stalin, followed by five-year exile.[1] The exile was in Dzhambul (current Taraz), Kazakhstan.

After rehabilitation

Stern photographed circa 1910

After Stalin's death, life became easier. Finally she was exonerated by the Presidium, returned to Moscow and 1954–1968 she headed the Department of Physiology at Biophysics Institute.[10]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Lina Stern: Science and fate by A.A. Vein. Department of Neurology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
  2. ↑ Vein, Alla A. (2008). "Science and Fate: Lina Stern (1878–1968), A Neurophysiologist and Biochemist". Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 17 (2): 195–206. doi:10.1080/09647040601138478. ISSN 0964-704X. PMID 18421636. S2CID 37934842.
  3. ↑ Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia by Laura Lynn Windsor, pp. 188–189
  4. ↑ Lina Stern (1878–1968): Physiologin und Biochemikerin, erste Professorin an der Universität Genf und Opfer stalinistischer Prozesse (in German)
  5. ↑ Ballabh, Praveen; Braun, Alex; Nedergaard, Maiken (1 June 2004). "The blood–brain barrier: an overview". Neurobiology of Disease. 16 (1): 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2003.12.016. ISSN 0969-9961. PMID 15207256. S2CID 2202060.
  6. ↑ Davson, Hugh (1989), "History of the Blood-Brain Barrier Concept", Implications of the Blood-Brain Barrier and its Manipulation, Springer US, pp. 27–52, doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-0701-3_2, ISBN 9781461280392
  7. ↑ Davson, H (1976-02-01). "Review lecture. The blood-brain barrier". The Journal of Physiology. 255 (1): 1–28. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1976.sp011267. ISSN 0022-3751. PMC 1309232. PMID 1255511.
  8. ↑ Ribatti, Domenico; Nico, Beatrice; Crivellato, Enrico; Artico, Marco (2006-01-25). "Development of the blood-brain barrier: A historical point of view". The Anatomical Record Part B: The New Anatomist. 289B (1): 3–8. doi:10.1002/ar.b.20087. ISSN 1552-4906. PMID 16437552.
  9. ↑ Saunders, Norman R.; Dreifuss, Jean-Jacques; Dziegielewska, Katarzyna M.; Johansson, Pia A.; Habgood, Mark D.; Møllgård, Kjeld; Bauer, Hans-Christian (2014). "The rights and wrongs of blood-brain barrier permeability studies: a walk through 100 years of history". Frontiers in Neuroscience. 8: 404. doi:10.3389/fnins.2014.00404. ISSN 1662-453X. PMC 4267212. PMID 25565938.
  10. ↑ "ISHN 2006 Annual Meeting -- Abstract 44". www.bri.ucla.edu.

Further reading

  • Stalin's Secret Pogrom: The Postwar Inquisition of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee by Joshua Rubenstein. ISBN 0-300-08486-2
  • Vogt, Annette B. (1970–1980). "Shtern, Lina Solomonovna". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 24. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 447–449. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9.
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