Aleksandr Reprev

REPREV, Aleksandr Vasilyevich (1853–1930), an eminent pathologist. He graduated from the Medico-Surgical (Military Medical) Academy in Petersburg in 1878, after which he was dispatched to the theater of military operations in Bulgaria. From 1880 to 1886 he worked as a resident physician at the Penza Provincial Hospital, then returned to Petersburg, where he entered the laboratory of general and experimental pathology of the Military Medical Academy, directed by Professor V. V. Pashutin. In 1889 he was elected privat-docent, and in 1890 prosector of the Department of General Pathology at the Military Medical Academy. In 1891 Reprev was elected to the Department of General Pathology at Tomsk University, and in 1895 he transferred to the same department in Kharkov, where shortly afterwards he also obtained the chairs of general pathology at the Women's Medical Institute and the Veterinary Institute. In 1912 he received the title of Honored Professor. In 1918 he moved to Simferopol, where in 1920 he assumed the chair of pathological physiology at the newly opened Crimean University, as well as the position of dean of the medical faculty. In 1922 Reprev returned to the chair of pathological physiology in Kharkov. In 1924 he retired due to length of service. In the last years of his life Reprev served as head of the research department of experimental pathology under Glavnauka of Ukraine, headed the biological department of the All-Ukrainian Roentgenological Institute, and the pathology department of the Ukrainian Institute of Scientific and Practical Veterinary Medicine. Reprev's scientific works relate mainly to problems of metabolism and endocrinology. Incidentally, Reprev was the first in Russia to engage in endocrinology, which is why he is rightfully called the "Nestor of Russian endocrinology." Reprev's most famous studies concern the influence of pregnancy on metabolism, the dependence of the sexual sphere on the nutrition of the organism, the influence of the postpartum period and lactation on life manifestations, and a monograph on internal secretion. Reprev's fundamental work, Fundamentals of General Experimental Pathology (1,250 pp., Kharkov, 1908), was of immense importance in its time. In his very last years Reprev continued his scientific activity and published a number of works on the effect of X-rays on metabolism, the effect of tumors on metabolism, and the connection between tumors and endocrine gland disorders. 19 of Reprev's pupils hold chairs in various higher schools of the Union.