Reply to Comments by Yu. A. Pankov on the Paper "Current Aspects of Hormonology" by V. I. Kulinskii and L. S. Kolesnichenko

V. I. Kulinskii^1,2 and L. S. Kolesnichenko¹

¹Departments of Biochemistry and Bioorganic Chemistry, Irkutsk State Medical University, ul. Krasnogo Vosstaniya 1, Irkutsk, 664003 Russia; fax: (395) 224-2056; E-mail: vita@math.isu.runnet.ru

²To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Yu. A. Pankov did not disagree with the main positions of our paper [1] and his comments represent his general position that is stressed by the title "On Fundamental Endocrinology" [2]. In our turn we generally agree with his point of view.

Here we consider a few discrepancies. 1) He and we believe that the so-called "Pavlov's" session of Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR in 1950 brought great harm to the development of hormonology in our country. But in our opinion it is questionable (especially in the biochemical aspect) that the session "powerfully stimulated the progress in studies on nervous processes".

2) Fundamental hormonology is actually an important part of molecular biology. However, the notion "matrix biology" is narrower than molecular biology. Apparently, they are overlapping circles. Many modern parts of hormonology (especially protein-peptide hormones) are based on matrix biology. However, this does not relate to short-term regulation of metabolism and functions of cells and an organism and also to signal-transducing systems involved in these regulations. Another question is whether the same systems are involved in the regulation of matrix processes as well.

3) Definition of hormones as any intercellular regulators of receptor action we also used earlier, before the discovery of leptin (see, for example [3, 4]). We included into hormones (first messengers) neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, eicosanoids, growth factors, and cytokines. But eicosanoids and growth factors are really formed in most or even all cells of a multicellular organism.

LITERATURE CITED

1.Kulinskii, V. I., and Kolesnichenko, L. S. (1997) Biochemistry (Moscow), 62, 1177-1179 (Russ).
2.Pankov, Yu. A. (1997) Biochemistry (Moscow), 62, 1373.
3.Kulinskii, V. I. , and Olkhovsky, I. A. (1992) Usp. Sovr. Biol., 112, 697-714.
4.Kulinskii, V. I. (1994) Vopr. Med. Khim., 40, 14-18.

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