Celebration of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the French society for connective tissue research. Its short history in the frame of the origin and development of this discipline

Autor: Ladislas Robert, Alexandre Robert, F.X. Maquart, Jacqueline Labat-Robert, J.P. Borel
Přispěvatelé: Matrice extracellulaire et dynamique cellulaire - UMR 7369 (MEDyC), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-SFR CAP Santé (Champagne-Ardenne Picardie Santé), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)-Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA)-Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Rok vydání: 2011
Předmět:
Zdroj: Pathologie Biologie
Pathologie Biologie, Elsevier Masson, 2012, 60, pp.2-6
ISSN: 1768-3114
0369-8114
Popis: The science of connective tissues has (at least) a double origin. Collagen, their major constituent was first studied in conjunction with the leather industry. Acid mucopolysaccharides (now glycosaminoglycans) were characterised by (bio)-chemists interested in glycoconjugates. They joined mainly hospital-based rheumatology departments. Later started the study of elastin with the discovery of elastases and of connective tissue-born (structural) glycoproteins. Besides rhumatologists and leather-chemists mainly pathologists became involved in this type of research, followed closely by ophthalmology research. The first important meetings of these diverse specialists were organised under the auspices of NATO, first in Saint-Andrew's in GB in1964 [1] and a few years later (1969) in Santa Margareta, Italy [2] . With the discovery of fibronectin, a “structural glycoprotein”, started the study of cell-matrix interactions, reinforced by the identification of cell-receptors mediating them and the “cross-talk” between cells and matrix constituents. The first initiative to organise societies for this rapidly growing discipline was that of Ward Pigman in New York in 1961, restricted however to glycol-conjugates. Next year, in 1962 was founded the first European Connective Tissue Society in Paris: the “Club francais du tissu conjonctif”, which played a crucial role in the establishment of schools, laboratories, national and international meetings in the major cities of France: Paris, Lyon, Reims, Caen,Toulouse. A second European society was born in Great Britain, and at a joint meeting with the French society at the Paris Pasteur Institute, was founded in 1967 by these societies the Federation of European Connective Tissue Societies (FECTS). Their meetings, organised every second year, drained a wide attendance from all over the world. An increasing number of young scientists joined since then this branch of biomedical discipline with several international journals devoted to connective tissue research, to matrix biology. The increasing number and quality of the young generation of scientists engaged in research related to the extracellular matrix or better Biomatrix and cell-matrix interactions is a further guarantee for the continued interest in this crucial field of science at the interface of basic and medically oriented research.
Databáze: OpenAIRE