Franz Leydig

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Franz von Leydig
Leydig cells
Leydig's organ
SpouseKatharina Jaeger
Awards

Franz von Leydig, also Franz Leydig (German:

comparative anatomist.[1]

Life

Franz Leydig was born on 21 May 1821 in

Protestant.[1] Leydig shared both his father's Catholic religion and hobbies: his father was a keen gardener and beekeeper. Leydig himself recalled later that those childhood interests began his lifelong concern with botany and zoology.[1] At age 12, he acquired a simple microscope, which he used in the majority of his free time.[1]

Leydig studied philosophy in Munich from 1840, and medicine at the University of Würzburg from 1842 under Martin Münz (1785–1848), August Schenk, and Franz von Rinecker (1811–1883).[1] He received his doctorate in medicine at Würzburg on 27 August 1847, becoming an assistant in the physiology department, while also teaching histology and developmental anatomy under Albert von Kölliker (1817–1905).[1] In 1848 he became prosector at the zootomic institution in Würzburg in 1848. The following year he qualified as a lecturer, and on 9 May 1855 he was appointed professor.[1] In the winter of 1850–1851, Leydig made a journey to Sardinia, where he became aware of the rich marine life that was to become the subject of some of his most important researches. That journey, coupled with his early preoccupation with microscopy, directed the course of his life's work.[1]

In 1857 Leydig became full professor of

Jan Evangelista Purkyne (1797–1869), Gabriel Gustav Valentin (1810–1883), and by Theodor Ambrose Hubert Schwann (1810–1882), who described the cell as a vesicle containing a nucleus in 1839.[1] Leydig paid further tribute to other contemporary anatomists, particularly Johannes Peter Müller (1801–1858) for his work on glands and emphasizing cellular doctrine for pathology.[1] Leydig's book was published at the time of similar subjects – most notably Kölliker's Handbuch der Gewebelehre des Menschen (1852) and Joseph von Gerlach’s (1820–1896) Handbuch der allgemeinen und speciellen Gewebelehre des menschlichen Körpers... (1848). The Lehrbuch, however, gives the best account of the growth of comparative microscopical anatomy in the two decades following Schwann’s discoveries.[1]

He became

St. Petersburg[1] and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
(1898).

Impact

Franz von Leydig's work on neural tissue influenced

testes.[1] The cells produce the male hormone testosterone. Leydig had described the interstitial cells in his detailed account of the male sex organs.[3]

The comparative studies of the testis resulted in the discovery of cells surrounding the seminiferous tubules, vessels, and nerves. These special cells are present in small numbers where they follow the course of the blood vessels, but increase in mass considerably when surrounding seminiferous tubules. These cells are lipoid in character; they can be colourless or can be stained yellowish, and they have light vesicular nuclei." - Franz Leydig, 1850[1]

The above description clearly indicates that Leydig recognized the specific

endocrine nature and ultrastructure been fully understood to further clarify the validity of practical research and its relations to the pressure and stress exxperienced by student's testes.[1]

In addition to its historical importance, Leydig’s "Lehrbuch" is significant for his description of a large secretory cell, found in the

epidermis of fishes and larvae amphibians.[1] This mucous cell is unusual in that it does not pour secretion over the surface of the epithelium; Leydig believed that the cell function was to lubricate the skin, and the cell now bears his name.[1] Leydig is also known for describing large vesicular cells that occur in the connective tissue and the walls of blood vessels in crustaceans in 1883: four different types of the latter have been determined.[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "Franz von Leydig" (biography), Ole Daniel Enerson, 2006, WhoNamedIt.com WNI-675-Leydig.
  2. ^ a b "Franz von Leydig - Wikipedia" (German), German Wikipedia, 2006-10-29, de.wikipedia.org webpage: GermanWP-Franz_von_Leydig.
  3. ^ "Zur Anatomie der männlichen Geschlechtsorgane und Analdrüsen der Säugetiere," Z. Wiss. Zool. 1850;2:1–57

References

  • "Franz von Leydig (whonamedit.com)" (biography), Ole Daniel Enerson, 2006, WhoNamedIt.com webpage: WNI-675-Leydig.
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