Secretion

Abstract

Bowen (1929) gives most of the credit for relating the Golgi apparatus to secretion to Nassonov and specifically notes the inaccuracy of crediting this concept to Negri (1900) which was done by several investigators. Interest in secretion actually predated the cell theory. When it was established that secretion was a cellular function (see Bowen 1929), attention turned to the question of what cellular components were involved in the formation of secretory materials. (Secretion, as defined by Bowen, had a special meaning. See below.) From the discovery of the Golgi apparatus there were repeated contentions that this organelle might somehow be involved. Not until Nassonov (1923, 1924) pointed out the consistent association of secretory products and the Golgi apparatus and noted certain common staining reactions was the connection made clear. Nassonov wrote that the papers available to him (limited by the scant penetration of scientific papers from Western Europe into Russia during the Revolution) could be divided into three categories: the first included papers which categorically denied the idea of participation of the organelle in secretion. In this category he included Negri’s 1900 paper. Bowen (1929) has remarked that many investigators assumed this paper to establish an association between secretion and the Golgi apparatus but that this assumption is not supported by a careful reading. In certain secreting cells Negri failed to record any change in the Golgi apparatus accompanying secretion.