RESUMO
Pio del Rio-Hortega was not only the discoverer of the microglia and oligodendroglia but also possibly the most prolific mentor of all Santiago Ramon y Cajal's disciples (Nobel awardee in Physiology or Medicine 1906 and considered as the father of modern Neuroscience). Among Río-Hortega's mentees, three exceptional women are frequently forgotten, chronologically: Pio's niece Asunción Amo del Río who worked with Río-Hortega at Madrid, Paris, and Oxford; the distinguished British neuropathologist Dorothy Russell who also worked with Don Pío at Oxford; and Amanda Pellegrino de Iraldi, the last mentee in his career. Our present work analyzes the figures of these three women who were in contact and collaborated with Don Pío del Río-Hortega, describing the influences received and the impact on their careers and the History of Neuroscience. The present work completes the contribution of women neuroscientists who worked with Cajal and his main disciples of the Spanish Neurological School both in Spain (previous work) and in other countries (present work).
RESUMO
Pío del Río-Hortega (Portillo, 1882-Buenos Aires 1945) was a Spanish pioneer scientist. Here, we highlight his professional merits and scientific qualities, facets that permitted him to open the eyes of the scientific community to the existence of microglia and oligodendroglia. Indeed, after Cajal formulated the "neuron doctrine" (1888), Río-Hortega was perhaps whose contributions represent the most important advances in our understanding of the microscopic anatomy of the nervous system. Río-Hortega achieved his discoveries thanks to a histological staining method developed by himself, the ammoniacal silver carbonate staining, absolutely fundamental for his histological studies. His early education in Histology was due to Professor Leopoldo López-García, at the Faculty of Medicine of Valladolid. Later in Madrid (1912), Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Nicolás Achúcarro became his definitive tutors. Achúcarro was an exceptional neurohistopathologist and authentic mentor for Río-Hortega until his death in 1918. The scientific career of Río-Hortega oscillated between the international recognition of his scientific discoveries (nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1928 and 1937), and the personal/social misfortunes he suffered in Spain, such as his expulsion from Cajal's Laboratory in 1920, the hostile envy of some conservative Spanish academics for his scientific merit (1934), and his sad political exile (Paris, Oxford, and Buenos Aires) due to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Perhaps, Pío del Río-Hortega is the paradigm of a Spanish scientist of the beginning of XXth century, living between the heaven and the hell, he revolutionized the scientific concept of glia. Anat Rec, 303:1232-1241, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy.
