[Igor' Vladimirovich Torgov. Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. On his 95th birthday].
The late 1940s and the early 1950s were marked by an extraordinary rise in the interest of scientists worldwide (chemists, biologists, and physicians) in steroid hormones, one of the types of natural compounds later referred to as low-molecular bioregulators. The steroid compounds constructed on the basis of the cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene skeleton turned out to be the most universal of all known representatives of natural compounds, exhibiting a high regulatory activity in the broadest set of physiological processes. At the very beginning of study of this class of compounds, it was found that they are responsible for sexual development and maturation, reproduction, water-salt balance, and exchange of carbohydrates. The spectrum of their activities was extended ever further, and, nowadays, perhaps no known vital function of living organisms remains in which, in some way, steroids are not involved.
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D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D012426:Russia; D013256:Steroids / Q000266:history; D014586:USSR
D013256:Steroids