The frog skin that saved fifty million lives - From the bench-side to world-wide

Norbert Hirschhorn; David Sachar

The frog skin that saved fifty million lives - From the bench-side to world-wide

Norbert Hirschhorn, David Sachar

Research output: Contribution to journal › Editorial

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-2
Number of pages	2
Journal	Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Bed to Bench
Volume	12
Issue number	1
State	Published - 2019

Cite this

@article{faf51874fb694a86a0fa65ac956007b5,

title = "The frog skin that saved fifty million lives - From the bench-side to world-wide",

author = "Norbert Hirschhorn and David Sachar",

note = "Funding Information: reigning theories about the pathology of cholera weighed against ORT: cholera thought due to destruction of the intestinal lining, leading to leakage of fluids; or cholera thought due to the “poisoning” of a theoretical intestinal sodium pump. The first clear evidence for the prospect of ORT came from the work of Dr. David Sachar (DS) at the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL) in East Pakistan (now the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control. Here is where the frog skin comes in. In 1966, DS, on assignment as a U.S. Public Health Officer at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, East Pakistan set out to explore the basic mechanisms of diarrhea in cholera, a leading killer of children and adults worldwide. Starting with experience measuring electric potentials across frog skins in Prof. Hans Ussing{\textquoteright}s laboratory in Copenhagen, DS developed an ingenious but simple method for measuring electric potential in the intact human intestine. He imported this technique back to his base in Dhaka, where he could use it to test the function of patients{\textquoteright} intestinal sodium transport during the course of cholera. By assessing intestinal potential at the height of their diarrhea and again in convalescence, DS demonstrated not only that active sodium absorption was intact throughout the disease, but that it was also robustly stimulated by the infusion of glucose into the intestinal lumen. The finding, published in Gastroenterology in 1969 (4), gave confidence for Norbert Hirschhorn (NH), his colleague at the time, to conduct a proof-of-concept",

year = "2019",

language = "English",

volume = "12",

pages = "1--2",

journal = "Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Bed to Bench",

issn = "2008-2258",

publisher = "Shahid Beheshti Medical University",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The frog skin that saved fifty million lives - From the bench-side to world-wide

AU - Hirschhorn, Norbert

AU - Sachar, David

N1 - Funding Information: reigning theories about the pathology of cholera weighed against ORT: cholera thought due to destruction of the intestinal lining, leading to leakage of fluids; or cholera thought due to the “poisoning” of a theoretical intestinal sodium pump. The first clear evidence for the prospect of ORT came from the work of Dr. David Sachar (DS) at the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL) in East Pakistan (now the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control. Here is where the frog skin comes in. In 1966, DS, on assignment as a U.S. Public Health Officer at the Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, East Pakistan set out to explore the basic mechanisms of diarrhea in cholera, a leading killer of children and adults worldwide. Starting with experience measuring electric potentials across frog skins in Prof. Hans Ussing’s laboratory in Copenhagen, DS developed an ingenious but simple method for measuring electric potential in the intact human intestine. He imported this technique back to his base in Dhaka, where he could use it to test the function of patients’ intestinal sodium transport during the course of cholera. By assessing intestinal potential at the height of their diarrhea and again in convalescence, DS demonstrated not only that active sodium absorption was intact throughout the disease, but that it was also robustly stimulated by the infusion of glucose into the intestinal lumen. The finding, published in Gastroenterology in 1969 (4), gave confidence for Norbert Hirschhorn (NH), his colleague at the time, to conduct a proof-of-concept

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85062420510&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Editorial

AN - SCOPUS:85062420510

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 2

JO - Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Bed to Bench

JF - Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Bed to Bench

SN - 2008-2258

IS - 1

ER -