Cross-cultural, transnational or interdisciplinary? Eric Wittkower's psychosomatic medicine and transcultural psychiatry in historical context.

This article traces the career, scientific achievements, and emigration of the Berlin-born physician, psychoanalyst, and psychosomatic researcher Eric Wittkower. Trained in Berlin and practicing internal medicine, he became persecuted by the Nazi regime and, after fleeing Germany via Switzerland, continued his professional career in the United Kingdom, where he turned to psychosomatic medicine and worked in the service of the British Army during World War II. After two decades of service in the UK, Wittkower joined McGill University in Canada. His increasingly interdisciplinary work contributed to the establishment of the new research field of transcultural psychiatry. Finally the paper provides a detailed history of the beginning of the section of transcultural psychiatry at the Allan Memorial Institute.

Pulmonary transplantation of macrophage progenitors as effective and long-lasting therapy for hereditary pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.

Hereditary pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (herPAP) is a rare lung disease caused by mutations in the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) receptor genes, resulting in disturbed alveolar macrophage differentiation, massive alveolar proteinosis, and life-threatening respiratory insufficiency. So far, the only effective treatment for herPAP is repetitive whole-lung lavage, a merely symptomatic and highly invasive procedure. We introduce pulmonary transplantation of macrophage progenitors as effective and long-lasting therapy for herPAP. In a murine disease model, intrapulmonary transplanted macrophage progenitors displayed selective, long-term pulmonary engraftment and differentiation into functional alveolar macrophages. A single transplantation ameliorated the herPAP phenotype for at least 9 months, resulting in significantly reduced alveolar proteinosis, normalized lung densities in chest computed tomography, and improved lung function. A significant and sustained disease resolution was also observed in a second, humanized herPAP model after intrapulmonary transplantation of human macrophage progenitors. The therapeutic effect was mediated by long-lived, lung-resident macrophages, which displayed functional and phenotypical characteristics of primary human alveolar macrophages. Our findings present the concept of organotopic transplantation of macrophage progenitors as an effective and long-lasting therapy of herPAP and may also serve as a proof of principle for other diseases, expanding current stem cell-based strategies toward potent concepts using the transplantation of differentiated cells.

[Eric D. Wittkower--a forgotten pioneer of psychosomatic medicine]. / Eric D. Wittkower--Ein vergessener Pionier der Psychosomatischen Medizin.

Eric D. Wittkower--a forgotten pioneer of psychosomatic medicine. Wittkower (1899-1983) was not only a pioneer of psychosomatics, but also a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, co-founder of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and major exponent of transcultural psychiatry. This article tries to retrace his early years and studies in Berlin by means of autobiographical notes and archival material in the Berlin university. Then it focuses on his research and specialisation as a doctor and lecturer of psychosomatic medicine until his forced emigration in 1933.