A tribute to Samuel MacDonald McCann (1925-2007): in honor of one of the last pioneers of Neuroendocrinology

Abstract

, the only child of parents dedicated to university life. He received his basic education at Rice University, Houston. However, his interest in science developed during high school at Culver Military Academy. He obtained his MD at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1948 in only three years, always as one of the best students in the course. During this period he published two papers in the American Journal of Physiology demonstrating the role of stress and of adrenocortical hormones in triggering hypertension. He did his internship and medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, where he conducted studies on the artificial kidney. Two years later he returned to the University of Pennsylvania as a Physiology Instructor and then served in the American Armed Forces at Walter Reed Hospital (Army Medical Corps), where he continued his studies on stress and on the control of vasopressin secretion. In the Department of Physiology of the University of Pennsylvania he started his pioneering studies in Neuroendocrinology, demonstrating the existence of neuropeptides secreted by the hypothalamus and responsible for the control of adenohypophyseal functions. He was the first to demonstrate the role of vasopressin in the control of ACTH secretion, the biological existence of LH-releasing factor (LHRF) in the basal middle hypothalamus, and of FSH-RF, GHRF and GHIF, the last known as somatostatin. At the University of Pennsylvania he held all the academic positions from Instructor to Full Professor of Physiology in 1964. In 1965 he was invited to be Chairman of the

Cyclosomatostatin-induced catalepsy in the aged rat: a response to levodopa, diphenhydramine and nicotine

“…The cannula was filled with aCSF before implantation. Leakage of fluid from the cannula during implantation was considered as evidence of proper cannula placement [45]. Additionally, the location of the cannula track was verified during sectioning.…”