Cortisone therapy
Cortisona como antiinflamatorio
- Date
- 1948-1949 · confidence high
- Place
- Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States; synthesis at Merck, Rahway
- Credited to
- Philip Hench and Edward Kendall (Mayo), Tadeusz Reichstein (Basel); Nobel Prize 1950
- People
- 👤 Edward Calvin Kendall1886–1972👤 Philip Showalter Hench1896–1965👤 Tadeus Reichstein1897–1996
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
The first application of a corticosteroid hormone to treat rheumatoid arthritis, with effects considered miraculous. It launched corticosteroids, the basis of treatment for inflammation, allergy and transplantation.
What it led to
- Corticosteroids as universal drugs (asthma, allergy, autoimmune disease)
- The immunosuppression that made organ transplantation possible
- The pharmaceutical industry of steroid synthesis (and the contraceptive pill)
Built on
- Testosterone, first male sex hormone isolated1935
- steroid chemistry
- adrenal physiology