Wilder Penfield, Pío del Río-Hortega, and the discovery of oligodendroglia.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the contribution of Wilder Penfield to the early characterization of glial cells in collaboration with Pío Del Río-Hortega and Santiago Ramón y Cajal during his study in La Residencia des Estudiantes, Laboratorio de Histopatología in Madrid in 1924.


METHODS
Comprehensive review of the English and Spanish-language literature pertinent to the history of Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), his associations with Pío Del Río-Hortega (1882-1945) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934), and his articles describing glial cells.


RESULTS
Penfield went to Spain in the spring of 1924 to work with Río-Hortega and Cajal, which resulted in a fruitful 5 months of study. During this trip, he published several articles, including a landmark report in which he completed the characterization of the "third element" of Cajal (non-astrocyte glial cells) and its relationship to classical neuroglia. The article was accepted for publication in Brain, the leading British neurology journal of the time.


CONCLUSIONS
Today, Wilder Penfield is much better known for his seminal explorations of the cortical basis of higher function, his contributions to epilepsy surgery, and as the founder of the Montreal Neurological Institute than for his original work with Sherrington in England or Río-Hortega and Cajal in Spain. While working with Río-Hortega, his report on oligodendroglia was critical to advancing the characterization of this important class of glial cells.
Gill
Amandip S
AS
Binder
Devin K
DK
D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009445:Neuroanatomy / Q000266:history*; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000266:history; D009836:Oligodendroglia / Q000166:cytology* / Q000473:pathology; D013030:Spain