Main Research Interests
In 1946, Leblond found that, when he poured liquid photographic emulsion on a histological section containing a radio element, the emulsion was eventually activated by the radio-element; and if thereafter routine photographic development and fixation were applied to the emulsion-covered section, black silver grains appeared in the emulsion wherever it overlay sites containing a radio-element. This liquid emulsion approach has been used to develop a new High Resolution Autoradiography procedure characterized by close contact between emulsion and section. Such close contact makes it possible to localize the radio-elements in the section at high resolution, so that radio-elements can be localized at high magnification in the light microscope.
This procedure has been utilized to examine some of the dynamic features of body components, with the main findings as follows:
- The existence of stem cells in adult organs, as shown by autoradiography with labeled thymidine.
- The continuity of protein synthesis in living cells, as shown by autoradiography with labeled amino acids.
- The key role of the Golgi apparatus in protein glycosylation, as shown by autoradiography with labeled hexoses.
His results threw doubt on the validity of three traditional concepts dear to biologists in the earlier part of the twentieth century: "stability" of the cell, in which the cell and its components are unchanging, permanent structures; "specificity" of cell function, in which each cell type has a distinct, unique function; and "activity-rest alternation" of cell function, in which each period of cellular activity is followed by a period during which the activity ceases.
He has proposed replacing cell "specificity" by "multipotentiality", "activity-rest alternation" by "continuity" and "stability" of cell components by "renewal". These various results have provided the foundation not only for modern stem cell research, but also for modern cell biology.
As Nobel laureate George Palade noted on the occasion of the 1992 Prix Marie-Victorin to Leblond, Charles Leblond’s discoveries are so fundamental that they are taught in schools and colleges throughout the world.
Read more about this topic: Charles Philippe Leblond
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