Carrel

CARREL Alexis (Alexis Carrel, b. 1873), famous experimental surgeon, of French origin. Received his doctorate in medicine in Lyon in 1900. He is a full member of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York; in the laboratories of this institute, C. conducts his scientific work. The main scientific research of C., which established him as an outstanding experimenter, is devoted to the transplantation of organs by means of vascular anastomosis, experiments with a whole 'visceral organism' (internal organs were all removed from the body, placed in a vessel and continued to function there), the study of wound healing, and the development of methodology and technique of tissue cultures (see Tissue culture), and he was the first (1912) to obtain an 'eternal strain' of embryonic fibroblasts, the life and growth of which to the present time is maintained 'in vitro' by 'passages' according to C.'s method; he also proposed a new technique for cultivating tissues for physiological purposes. By means of the tissue culture method, he systematically studied the growth factors of tissues, the physiological properties of fibroblasts obtained by him in pure culture, macrophages, etc., which outlined a new direction in cytology. A number of works by C. are devoted to the study of cells of malignant tumors. The scientific works of Carrel have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

The total number of works by C. is very significant. Among the most important are: 'La technique operatoire des anastomoses vasculaires et la transplantation des viscères' (Lyon méd., 1902, No. 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, Jg. 24); 'Tissue culture and cell physiology' (Physiological reviews, v. IV, No. 1, 1924); 'Tissue cultures in the study of viruses' (chapter in the book 'Filterable viruses', ed. by Th. Rivers, L., 1928).