The contributions of the Spanish anatomist Barcia-Goyanes to international anatomical terminology

Juan José Barcia-Goyanes (Santiago de Compostela, 1901 - Valencia, 2003) was a Full Professor of Anatomy (Catedrático de Anatomía) in 1927 at the University of Salamanca and later on, at the University of Valencia, until his retirement. Among his bibliographical data, besides his profound knowledge of Anatomy, he also excelled for his studies on Psychiatry and Neurology and, based on this expertise, he became a pioneer of Spanish Neurosurgery, which he initiated in 1931. In addition, he was Dean of the School of Medicine and Rector of the University of Valencia. In this article, we would like to emphasize his contributions to Anatomy, addressing some of his most important publications. He described for the first time the Incisive Superior Bone, and published crucial conclusions about the foundations of Anatomy and the concept of Form. Importantly, we highlight the Onomatologia anatomica nova, as an opus magnum on the language of Anatomy, which was possible due to his wide knowledge of languages. We also underline, among others, his original study on the greatest work of Vesalius

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Increased mRNA expression of cytochrome oxidase in dorsal raphe nucleus of depressive suicide victims.

Suicidal behavior is a problem with important social repercussions. Some groups of the population show a higher risk of suicide; for example, depression, alcoholism, psychosis or drug abuse frequently precedes suicidal behavior. However, the relationship between metabolic alterations in the brain and premorbid clinical symptoms of suicide remains uncertain. The serotonergic and noradrenergic systems have frequently been, implicated in suicidal behavior and the amount of serotonin in the brain and CSF of suicide victims has been found to be low compared with normal subjects. However, there are contradictory results regarding the role of noradrenergic neurons in the mediation of suicide attempts, possibly reflecting the heterogeneity of conditions that lead to a common outcome. In the present work we focus on the subgroup of suicide victims that share a common diagnosis of major depression. Based on post-mortem studies analyzing mRNA expression by in situ hybridization, serotonergic neurons from the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) from depressive suicide victims are seen to over-express cytochrome oxidase mRNA. However, no corresponding changes were found in the expression of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) mRNA in the noradrenergic neurons of the Locus Coeruleus (LC). These results suggest that, despite of the low levels of serotonin described in suicide victims, the activity of DRN neurons could increase in the suicidally depressed, probably due to the over activation of serotonin re-uptake. No alteration was found in noradrenergic neurons, suggesting that they play no crucial role in the suicidal behavior of depressive patients.