Gabriela Morreale and the heel prick test Authors Roser Iglesias Coll Departament de Bioquímica i Biomedicina Molecular. Facultat de Biologia. Universitat de Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1501.02.219 Keywords: hypothyroidism, heel prick test, thyroid hormones, mental retardation Abstract Gabriela Morreale de Castro (Milan, 1930 - Madrid, 2017), an Italian-Spanish chemist, is considered a pioneer of modern endocrinology in Spain. Her research was mainly centered on determining the role of thyroid hormones in brain development. Among the achievements of her long scientific career, her epidemiologic studies conducted in the 1960s in Spain’s then poor rural countryside, relating the lack of iodine to a higher incidence of goiter and severe mental retardation, deserve special mention. These findings helped to promote the iodination of kitchen salt to avoid iodine deficits and their health consequences. In the 1970s, Gabriela Morreale began to make routine measurements of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (T4) hormones in blood samples taken by neonatal heel pricks to detect hypothyroidism and to prevent congenital cretinism. She subsequently demonstrated the importance of maternal T4 hormone in the early stages of fetal brain development, helping in this way to define the nutritional requirements of iodine in pregnant women. She was endowed with great communication skills and promoted several public health actions that have prevented thousands of cases of mental retardation in Spain over the years. Downloads Download data is not yet available. Author Biography Roser Iglesias Coll, Departament de Bioquímica i Biomedicina Molecular. Facultat de Biologia. Universitat de Barcelona Catedràtica de bioquímica i biologia molecular. Estic adscrita al Departament de Bioquímica i Biomedicina Molecular de la Facultat de Biologia de la Universitat de Barcelona (UB). Imparteixo docència en el grau de bioquímica. La meva recerca ha estat centrada principalment en l’estudi del teixit adipós marró (TAM), i un dels aspectes en què he aprofundit és el paper de les hormones tiroidals en aquest teixit. Vull destacar els estudis primerencs per caracteritzar la regulació de l’activitat desiodasa del TAM i els que demostren que la generació de triiodotironina (T3) per aquest enzim és essencial en la resposta a l’estímul per fred. D’altra banda, els nostres estudis han ajudat a caracteritzar el paper del TAM com a productor de senyals hormonals, entre ells de la mateixa T3, i com contribueix així a regular la resposta d’altres teixits en l’adaptació al fred. Vaig conèixer la doctora Gabriela Morreale durant la realització de la tesi doctoral, quan vaig fer una estada al seu laboratori per aprendre la tècnica de radioimmunoassaig (RIA) d’alta sensibilitat per mesurar T3 i tiroxina (T4) circulants i en teixits. Durant aquesta estada, vaig poder copsar l’ambient familiar del seu laboratori i la naturalitat amb què tractava tothom: els seus despatxos donaven directament al laboratori on es realitzaven les deteccions en les mostres de nadons. La Gabriela era molt accessible, la seva porta sempre estava oberta i ella entrava i sortia contínuament i ho supervisava tot. Recordo amb afecte que, al migdia, dinàvem tots plegats en la taula de reunions: eren uns dinars distesos, sempre acompanyats per la Tula, la seva gossa, una teckel de pèl dur, que controlava els nouvinguts des de sota la taula. Per cert, va ser l’única dels presents que em mirava amb desconfiança mentre em saludava amb un grunyit. Downloads PDF (Català) Published 2024-01-24 Issue Vol. 73 (2023) Section Articles License The intellectual property of the articles belongs to the respective authors. 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