Paul Langerhans was a German pathologist, physiologist, and biologist with many talents. In his short life, Langerhans has been credited with numerous scientific achievements. His name will forever be associated with two discoveries in particular: the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas and the cells he discovered in the skin.
Born in 1847, in Berlin, Germany, Langerhans was exposed to the wonders of the scientific world early on. His father, Dr. Paul Langerhans Sr., was a physician; and his mother was a cousin of Franz Keibel, the eminent histologist. His brothers, Robert Langerhans, a professor of pathology, and Richard Langerhans, an honoured practitioner of medicine, both also followed career paths in science. At the renowned Graues Kloster, the oldest high school in Berlin, Langerhans was exempted from his final oral exams due to his outstanding performance. He began medical school at the University of Jena and later completed his studies in Berlin.
While working in Rudolf Virchow’s laboratory at the Berlin Pathological Institute as an undergraduate student, he began studying the anatomy of the pancreas. “There is indeed hardly another organ,” he said, “in which there is such glaring contrast between the brilliant results of physiologic research and the complete darkness in the realm of anatomic knowledge.” At this time, it was known that the pancreas had pivotal roles in digestion of nutrients; however, it was simply described as a cluster of glands containing a mass of infiltrating fat.
Langerhans early observations of the pancreas on diverse organisms ranging from rabbits to salamanders to humans dramatically improved our understanding of the structure of the pancreas. He studied pancreatic tissue by cutting it into thin cross sections and studying it under the microscope. He identified nine different cell types: one in particular greatly fascinated him. It was a “small, irregularly polygonal structure. Its cytoplasm is brilliant and free of any granules. Its nucleus distinct, round and moderate size…these cells lie together generally in considerable numbers, diffusely scattered” throughout the pancreas. Twenty-four years later, Laguesse, a French histologist, noted these cell clusters and called them “the islets of Langerhans”. These cells are now known to be responsible for the production and release of hormones, including insulin, that are crucial in regulating glucose levels.
Langerhans continued to make huge strides across diverse scientific fields. His precise observation and description of branched skin cells that had remained an enigma to dermatologists for over a century, eventually led to their discovery as peripheral immune cells and designation as Langerhans cells in 1973. While a Professor at the University of Freiburg, Paul Langerhans contracted tuberculosis in 1874. Interested in his own disease, he even published two papers on tuberculosis. In 1875, Langerhans embarked for Madeira, where he married his wife Margarethe Ebart years later. The couple enjoyed “three years of complete happiness”, before Langerhans died in 1888.
In his 40 years, Langerhans made several detailed descriptions that defined the morphology of the pancreas. His observations emboldened researchers for years in the future and led to several biological revelations. Today, every medical student the world over knows of the islets of Langerhans and their important relationship to diabetes.
— Written by Nicole Revie