Jean Nageotte

Who was Jean Nageotte?

Jean Nageotte was a French neuroanatomist born in Dijon.

He obtained his medical degree in Paris in 1893, and afterwards was associated with the Hôpital Bicêtre and Salpêtrière. He succeeded Louis-Antoine Ranvier in what then became the chair of comparative histology at the Collège de France.

Nageotte specialized in anatomical research of the nervous system, and in his work stressed the importance of microscopic anatomy. He performed research of nerve fibers and the myelin sheath, and conducted studies involving connective tissue. He provided a description of boutons terminaux of spinal nerves, and did extensive work with nerve grafting. In addition he investigated tabes dorsalis, and with Joseph Babinski, the Babinski-Nageotte syndrome was described. This syndrome is a complex of symptoms associated with medullary lesions. He documented this disorder in a treatise called Hémiasynergie, latéropulsion et miosis bulbaire. Also with Babinski, he co-wrote a book on cerebrospinal fluid.

In his 1910 article, he surmised that glial cells behaves like an endocrine organ and secretes several molecules into the blood. Albeit the importance of this proposal had not been recognized in his time, today we know that glias have neurotransmitter receptors and even more, release neurotransmitters with similar mechanisms as neurons.