Whipple, George Hoyt 1878-1976

WHIPPLE, GEORGE HOYT 1878-1976

Conqueror of pernicious anemia

Early Career

The work of George Hoyt Whipple was often ridiculed, but it saved thousands of lives and led to the understanding of organisms as intricately interconnected systems. Whipple attended the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned his medical degree in 1905. His primary interest was in the research of blood and liver disorders, which he studied with a colleague, John H. King. Whipple and King concentrated on the study of obstructive jaundice (icterus), a disease in which liver damage results in the release of yellowish bile pigments that appear in the skin of the patient. Whipple continued his study of the disease with Charles Hooper at the University of California in San Francisco. In 1914 their research led them to consider the possibility that the liver might be involved in pernicious anemia.

Pernicious Anemia

Pernicious anemia is a type of anemia in which the number of red blood cells in a patient's bloodstream is severely reduced. This leads to a reduction in the level of blood hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to the cells of the body. These cells then cannot produce enough energy to create the chemical reactions needed to survive. The result is the death of the cell and often the death of the patient.

A Treatment for Anemia Is Found

Whipple and Hooper began their research in pernicious anemia using dogs from a local pound. They were tying to determine how the animals reacted to artificially induced anemia. Next, they tried to increase rapidly the production of hemoglobin through a variation in the dogs' diet. They were able to produce dramatic results by feeding the dogs a diet of liver, lean scrap meat, and beef heart. On this diet complete hemoglobin regeneration occurred within two to four weeks. Although ridiculed by the medical community for thinking that a specific diet could cure a disease, Whipple and Hooper created liver and meat extracts that produced favorable results. Hooper was the first doctor to use these extracts as a treatment for a human patient suffering from pernicious anemia, but due to the ridicule, Hooper discontinued the research. Whipple continued the experiments with the help of Frieda S. Robscheit-Robbins at the New School of Medicine and Dentistry at Rochester University in New York. This research led to a definition of the necessary dietary requirements for treatment of pernicious anemia and, with the help of George Minot at Harvard University and the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company, to the development of extracts that would save thousands of lives.

The Importance of Iron

In 1925 Whipple and his associate discovered that the mineral iron was the most essential element for the production of hemoglobin. This important finding was announced in the American Journal of Physiology in an article titled "Blood Regeneration in Severe Anemia: III. Iron Reaction Favorable—Arsenic and Germanium Dioxide Almost Inert." Whipple and Robscheit-Robbins continued their research into the 1940s.

Nobel

In addition to the discovery of a treatment for pernicious anemia, Whipple also described several basic recycling enzymatic pathways within the body and improved the understanding of human liver and blood physiology. In 1934 Whipple's lifesaving research was recognized when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with George Minot and William Murphy.

Sources:

Tyler Wasson, ed., Nobel Prize Winners (New York: Wilson, 1987), pp. 1112-1114;

George Whipple, "Blood Regeneration in Severe Anemia, II, Favorable Influence of Liver, Heart and Skeletal Muscle in Diet/' American Journal of Physiology, 72 (1925): 408-418.