Pío del Río Hortega (1882 – 1945) was a Spanish neuroscientist who discovered

microglia Microglia are a type of glia, glial cell located throughout the brain and spinal cord of the central nervous system (CNS). Microglia account for about around 5–10% of cells found within the brain. As the resident macrophage cells, they act as t ...

Biography

Río Hortega was born in Portillo, Valladolid on 5 May 1882. He studied locally and qualified to practice medicine in 1905. He obtained his doctorate at the University of Madrid by researching the pathology of brain tumours. In 1913, he was funded to study research histology in France and Germany but the outbreak of war between them forced him to return to Spain. He worked with the histologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal and briefly with

Wilder Penfield Wilder Graves Penfield (January 26, 1891April 5, 1976) was an American-Canadian neurosurgeon. He expanded brain surgery's methods and techniques, including mapping the functions of various regions of the brain such as the cortical homunculus. ...

. Ramón y Cajal discovered

neurons A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

, Penfield helped explain oligodendroglia, whilst Rio Hortega discovered

, which are the cells that protect the brain from infection. He managed to identify microglia between 1919 and 1921 by staining the cells with

silver carbonate Silver carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula Ag2 C O3. This salt is yellow but typical samples are grayish due to the presence of elemental silver. It is poorly soluble in water, like most transition metal carbonates. Preparation a ...

. His method of staining also led to the discovery of oligodendroglia in 1921, which both he and Penfield are now credited with. However it was Rio Hortega who named the cells. His discoveries in 1920 created issues with Ramón y Cajal, who led the lab, as he had earlier won the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

. By 1931 del Río Hortega was leading Spain's cancer institute, but he left the country when the

civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

broke out in 1936. War spreading across Europe found him in Paris at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital before he went to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

to work with the British neurosurgeon Hugh Cairns. The bombing of Britain by Germany in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

drove him on to Argentina in August 1940. His move was funded by the Spanish Cultural Institute, who continued to support him as he created his own laboratory in 1942. In Buenos Aires he developed a fruitful scientific school with former disciples who worked with him in Europe (Moisés Polak, Washington Buño) and new ones, including chronologically the last one, Amanda Pellegrino de Iraldi. Río Hortega died in Buenos Aires on 1 June 1945 from a malignant

neoplasm A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rio Hortega, Pio 1882 births 1945 deaths People from Valladolid Spanish neuroscientists University of Valladolid alumni Histologists Spanish LGBTQ scientists Deaths from cancer in Argentina