Last update:
08-Sep-2020

In 1846, the medical journal "Filatre Sebezio" featured the paper "Sull'Intima struttura dei reni con alcune considerazioni sulla loro funzioni e malattie" by Giustiniano Nicolucci, a young doctor who had graduated just the previous year from the University of Naples. Nicolucci had already taken part as a major speaker at the "VII Congress of Italian Scientists", held in Naples in 1845. On that occasion as well in previous essays, he showcased his skills by using a microscope, at a time when Neapolitan physicians tended to combine medical observation with notions derived from comparative anatomy and physiology. On page 82 of this publication, Nicolucci refers to comparative anatomy, and in particular to Jacobson's 1821 research "De sistemate venoso peculiari in permultis animalibus observato", which showed that in fish, as well in birds and reptiles, there is a type of renal portal, which helps the lungs oxygenate the blood. On this basis, Nicolucci argued for a respiratory function of the kidneys, but, as he was not able to find Jacobson's renal vein in humans, he assumed that this respiratory function of the kidneys could be accomplished through the formation and multiplication of red blood cells, as was recently observed in the liver of a human embryo by Kölliker. According to Nicolucci, further research was needed to seek respiratory principles in urine. The intuition of the Neapolitan physician, unfortunately, did not receive due attention in subsequent studies: it was only in 1977 that Takaji Miyake was able to extract the erythropoietin molecule from the urine of a patient with aplastic anaemia.

Key words: Giustiniano Nicolucci, Kölliker A., Renal secretion of erythropoietin.