3 WIN NOBEL FOR HORMONE STUDIES

Author: Associated Press

Date: Monday, October 11, 1982
Page: ?????
Section: RUN OF PAPER

The three men teach at Harvard University.

The first of this year's Nobel awards was announced by the faculty of the Karolinska Insitute for Medicine in Stockholm. The record prize of 1.15 million kronor was worth $157,000 because of a 16 percent devaluation of Swedish currency last Friday. The recipients share the prize equally.

The awarding body cited the three researchers for their discoveries concerning "prostaglandins and related biologically active substances."

Vane, born 55 years ago in Worcestershire, has been research director of the Wellcome Foundation in Beckenham, England, since 1973. This fall he is lecturing at a Harvard seminar.

Bergstrom, rector of the Karolinska Institute, is also chairman of the Nobel Foundation Board. He is 66, and became dean of medical faculty at Karolinska in 1963. He received the distinguished American medical prize, the Albert Asker award, in 1977.

Samuelsson, 48, succeeded Bergstrom as dean of the Karolinska medical faculty in 1978. Since 1976 he has been a visiting professor of chemistry at Harvard.

They all have done extensive work in prostaglandins, which are formed in the stomach and are found in semen and menstrual fluid.

Prostaglandins guard tissue from damage by the body's digestive juices such as hydrochloric acid. The hormones are also widely used in obstetrics and gynecology and may be linked to the control of blood pressure.

The substances are employed to initiate childbirth or interrupt a pregnancy. Research on their uses may also become helpful toward relieving the often severe cramps women suffer during menstruation, the awarding body said.

Prostaglandins have also been tried for treatment of other ailments, such as relieving pain from arteriosclerosis in the legs and reducing secretion in patients with peptic ulcers.

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