Ulf Svante Von Euler Swedish physiologist Nobel laureate Date of Birth: 07.02.1905 Country: Sweden

1. Early Life and Education
2. Medical Career and Early Research
3. Discovery of Substance P and Prostaglandins
4. Discovery of Noradrenaline
5. Role of Catecholamines in the Nervous System
6. Nobel Prize and Legacy
7. Personal Life and Honors

Early Life and Education

Ulf Svante von Euler was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 7, 1905. His father, Hans von Euler-Chelpin, was a renowned biochemist, and his mother, Astrid Cleve von Euler, was a botanist. Von Euler received his early education in Stockholm and Karlstad. In 1922, he enrolled in the Karolinska Institutet, where he studied medicine.

Medical Career and Early Research

In 1925, von Euler received a prize for his research on the properties of blood in fevered patients, inspiring him to pursue a career in scientific research. He joined the Department of Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institutet, working under Göran Liljestrand. In 1930, von Euler earned his medical degree and became an assistant professor of pharmacology at the Karolinska Institutet.

Discovery of Substance P and Prostaglandins

Upon receiving a Rockefeller fellowship, von Euler traveled abroad to conduct research. In London, he worked in Henry H. Dale's laboratory, where he investigated the transmission of nerve impulses in the autonomic nervous system. In the mid-1920s, Otto Loewi had discovered that acetylcholine acted as a chemical messenger between nerve cells and muscle fibers. Dale tasked von Euler with confirming the presence of acetylcholine in the intestines.

Collaborating with Dale's colleague, John Gaddum, von Euler isolated a chemical substance that exhibited many of the same properties as acetylcholine in terms of its effects on muscles. However, this substance turned out not to be acetylcholine but a novel compound, which the researchers named substance P. They determined that substance P was a polypeptide, thus marking the first known member of a large group of peptides that act within brain and intestinal tissues. Today, these peptides are believed to function as neuromodulators rather than neurotransmitters.

With additional support from the Rockefeller Foundation, von Euler continued his research in Birmingham, UK, then in Frankfurt, Germany, and Ghent, Belgium, together with Corneille Heymans. These early experiments with substance P and other substances, he later wrote, "not only aroused an interest in searching for other active substances in biological tissues but also provided the necessary knowledge for such a search to be successful."

In late 1931, von Euler returned to Stockholm and, in 1935, made another significant discovery. Using purification techniques developed by Hugo Theorell, he isolated a substance from seminal fluid that lowered blood pressure and affected the tone of smooth muscle in different organs. Von Euler named this substance prostaglandin and entrusted its further purification and study to his colleague, biochemist Sune Bergström, who devoted his subsequent scientific career to it.

Discovery of Noradrenaline

The autonomic nervous system is comprised of two divisions: the sympathetic, which mediates the body's response to stress or intense activity, and the parasympathetic, which reduces heart rate, blood pressure, and gastrointestinal activity. Henry Dale had established that acetylcholine was the neurotransmitter in the parasympathetic nervous system, and the nature of the sympathetic neurotransmitter remained a subject of debate in the 1930s.

Von Euler dedicated himself to studying nerve transmission in the sympathetic nervous system. He analyzed tissues and extracts from nerves and wrote, "In such extracts, the presence of an adrenaline-like substance was quite evident, but it became clear that its spectrum of actions did not exactly coincide with that of adrenaline. The question arose whether this substance might not be noradrenaline?"

Noradrenaline, also known as norepinephrine, is a precursor to adrenaline; both are members of the catecholamine family due to their shared structure and sympathetic effects. In 1939, von Euler was appointed Professor of Physiology at the Karolinska Institutet, a position he held until his retirement in 1971.

Role of Catecholamines in the Nervous System

During the 1950s and 1960s, extensive research in many laboratories revealed that catecholamines such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and their precursor, dopamine, play a crucial role as neurotransmitters in the central nervous system, including the brain. Neurons containing catecholamines became known as adrenergic neurons.

Von Euler and his students and colleagues at the Karolinska Institutet played a leading role in this research. They developed a fluorescent method to visualize catecholamines, which enabled easy detection of these substances in tissues and extracts. Von Euler's initial research focused on the distribution of noradrenaline in various tissues under different levels of emotional or physical stress. This work led to practical applications in aviation medicine, making von Euler a respected expert in the field.

In the late 1950s, von Euler and his colleague Nils-Åke Hillarp discovered that catecholamines in adrenergic neurons are stored and transported in vesicles, similar to those identified by Bernard Katz as critical for the storage and release of acetylcholine.

Nobel Prize and Legacy

Von Euler's subsequent decade of research centered on the detailed investigation of catecholamine formation, release, and metabolism. His work largely overlapped with that of Julius Axelrod in the United States, but his focus was more on the biochemical aspects of catecholamine synthesis and the interactions between catecholamines and psychoactive drugs. Von Euler's discovery of prostaglandins, however, is more widely known today and has practical applications, particularly in obstetrics and gynecology.

From 1953 to 1960, von Euler served on the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, becoming its secretary from 1961 to 1965. In 1965, he was appointed Chairman of the Nobel Foundation Board. In 1970, von Euler was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Axelrod and Bernard Katz "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release, and inactivation."

As Borje Uvnas of the Karolinska Institutet stated in his speech of congratulations, this work "has not only deepened our theoretical knowledge in the field of medicine but is also of primary significance for the understanding and treatment of diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system," such as Parkinson's disease and hypertension.

Personal Life and Honors

In 1930, von Euler married Jane Sodenstern, and they had four children together. In 1957, von Euler divorced his first wife and married Countess Dagmar Cronstedt in 1958. He died in 1983 from arteriosclerosis.

Von Euler received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including the Gardner Foundation International Award (1961), Anders Jahre Prize in Medicine from the University of Oslo (1965), American Sociological Association's Stoffer Prize (1967), and Milan's Madonnina International Award (1970). He held honorary doctorates from the universities of Umeå, Rio de Janeiro, Dijon, Ghent, Tübingen, Buenos Aires, Edinburgh, Madrid, and the Gustavus Adolphus College.

Von Euler was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He was also an honorary member of the American College of Physicians, the Swedish College of Physicians, the Italian Pharmacological Society, the Swedish Endocrine Society, and the Society of Acusomedicine.