Leonid Vasilyevich Sobolev: the first Russian diabetologist, or the History of an unnoticed discovery

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Abstract

Leonid Vasilyevich Sobolev is an outstanding pathologist, whose name definitely should occupy an honorable place in the galaxy of great scientists of Russia. However, his name was undeservedly forgotten, and the role of his work was underestimated. This Russian scientist made the most important discovery: he proved in an experiment that it is the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas that secrete a humoral regulator, "factor X", the deficiency of which leads to diabetes mellitus. This mysterious islet factor will be isolated from the pancreas of dogs in 1921 by the future Nobel laureate Frederick G. Banting and will become part of the medicine as insulin. However, there is every reason to believe that the discovery of F. G. Banting, who repeated a series of experiments by Leonid Vasilyevich Sobolev, is, in fact, secondary, which is the research subject in this paper.

About the authors

Vladimir V. Salukhov

Kirov Military Medical Academy

Author for correspondence.
Email: vlasaluk@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1851-0941

д-р мед. наук, проф., нач. Первой каф. и клиники (терапии усовершенствования врачей) им. акад. Н.С. Молчанова ФГБВОУ ВО «ВМА им. С.М. Кирова»

Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg

Iurii S. Khalimov

Pavlov First Saint Petersburg State Medical University

Email: vlasaluk@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-7755-7275

д-р мед. наук, проф., зав. каф. факультетской терапии им. акад. Г.Ф. Ланга ФГБОУ ВО «Первый СПб ГМУ им. акад. И.П. Павлова»

Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg

Sergey B. Shustov

Kirov Military Medical Academy

Email: vlasaluk@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9075-8274

д-р мед. наук, проф., проф. Первой каф. и клиники (терапии усовершенствования врачей) им. акад. Н.С. Молчанова ФГБВОУ ВО «ВМА им. С.М. Кирова»

Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg

Aleksandr E. Korovin

Kirov Military Medical Academy; Saint Petersburg State University

Email: vlasaluk@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5507-6975

д-р мед. наук, доц., преподаватель Первой каф. и клиники (терапии усовершенствования врачей) им. акад. Н.С. Молчанова ФГБВОУ ВО «ВМА им. С.М. Кирова», проф. каф. патологии ФГБОУ ВО СПбГУ

Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg; Saint Petersburg

Leonid P. Churilov

Saint Petersburg State University

Email: vlasaluk@yandex.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6359-0026

канд. мед. наук, доц., зав. каф. патологии ФГБОУ ВО СПбГУ

Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg

References

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2. Fig. 1. Leonid Sobolev as a student of the Imperial Military Medical Academy (from the funds of the Museum of the Kirov Military Medical Academy, published for the first time).

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3. Fig. 2. Dr. Leonid Vasilyevich Sobolev, 1912 (from the funds of the Museum of the Kirov Military Medical Academy, published for the first time).

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4. Fig. 3. Title page from the original edition of Leonid Vasilyevich Sobolev's thesis (from the fund of the Fundamental Library of the Kirov Military Medical Academy).

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5. Fig. 4. Academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and Frederick G. Banting, 28 June 1935.

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6. Fig. 5. The restored grave of Dr. Leonid Vasilyevich Sobolev at the Smolenskoe Orthodox Cemetery in St. Petersburg (published for the first time).

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