Alexis Carrel

CARREL, Alexis (born 1873), a celebrated experimental surgeon of French origin. He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in Lyon in 1900. He is a full member of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York; Carrel conducts his scientific work in the laboratories of this institute. The principal scientific studies of Carrel that established him as a remarkable experimenter are devoted to the transplantation of organs via vascular suturing, experiments with the entire "visceral organism" (internal organs were removed together from the body, placed in a vessel, and continued to function there), the study of wound healing, and the development of the methodology and technique of tissue cultures (see Tissue culture), wherein he succeeded for the first time (1912) in obtaining an "eternal strain" of embryonic fibroblasts, the life and growth of which up to the present time

is maintained in vitro by "passages" according to Carrel's method; he also proposed a new technique for tissue cultivation for physiological purposes. Using the tissue culture method, he systematically studied tissue growth factors, the physiological properties of fibroblasts obtained in pure culture, macrophages, and so on, which charted a new direction in cytology. A number of Carrel's works are devoted to the study of malignant tumor cells. Carrel's scientific works were awarded the Nobel Prize.

The total number of Carrel's works is quite significant. Among the most important are: "La technique opératoire des anastomoses vasculaires et la transplantation des viscères" (Lyon méd., 1902, № 23), "Cultivation of tissues in vitro and its technic" (Journ. of exp. med., v. XIII, 1911); "Neue Untersuchungen über das selbständige Leben der Gewebe und Organe" (Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1913, Jvg 24); "Tissue culture and cell physiology" (Physiological reviews, v. IV, № 1, 1924); "Tissue cultures in the study of viruses" (ch. in the book "Filterable viruses", ed. by Th. Rivers, L., 1928).