Alfred Jost

For the German inventor and entrepreneur, see Alfred Jost (inventor).

Alfred Jost
Born	27 July 1916 Strasbourg
Died	3 February 1991
Nationality	French
Known for	anti-Müllerian hormone
Scientific career
Fields	Endocrinology
Institutions	Collège de France

Alfred Jost (1916–1991) was a French endocrinologist, and an early researcher in the field of fetal endocrinology.[1] He is known for his discovery of the Müllerian inhibitor, now called anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) or Müllerian inhibiting substance (MIS).[2] His research demonstrated how hormones affect the development of male and female sex characteristics.[3]

Career

Jost was a professor at the University of Paris, and was head of the Department of Comparative Physiology there in 1972.[4] Jost was known for applying surgical methods to fetal endocrinology. He also taught many pre-doctoral students.

Research

During the 1950s and 1960s Jost studied the mechanism of somatic sex differentiation;[5] his research showed that male characteristics must be imposed on the fetus by the testicular hormones testosterone and AMH,[6][5] and that in the absence or inactivity of these hormones, the fetus becomes phenotypically female.[7]

Jost also studied testicular differentiation, in collaboration with Solange Magre. He was the first to show that testicular organization is heralded by the development of pre-Sertoli cells, which progressively surround germ cells to form seminiferous tubules.

Death

He died February 3, 1991, at age 75,[8] having retired from the Collège de France, but still active as the Secrétaire Perpétuel of the French Academy of Sciences.

References

1. Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation. Karger. 1989. p. 168.
2. Martin Matzuk; Chester W. Brown; T. Rajendra Kumar (15 August 2001). Transgenics in Endocrinology. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-1-59259-102-2.
3. Lori Reed (1 February 2012). Governing the Female Body: Gender, Health, and Networks of Power. SUNY Press. pp. 277–. ISBN 978-1-4384-2954-0.
4. The Johns Hopkins Medical Journal. Johns Hopkins Press. 1972. pp. 37–38.
5. Jill B. Becker (2002). Behavioral Endocrinology. MIT Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-262-52321-9.
6. Michael Steven Kappy; David B. Allen (M.D.); Mitchell E. Geffner (2005). Principles and Practice of Pediatric Endocrinology. Charles C Thomas Publisher. p. 490. ISBN 978-0-398-07554-5.
7. Shlomo Melmed; Kenneth S. Polonsky; P. Reed Larsen; Henry Kronenberg (30 November 2015). Williams Textbook of Endocrinology. Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 903. ISBN 978-0-323-29738-7.
8. C. Wayne Bardin (10 May 2014). Recent Progress in Hormone Research: Proceedings of the 1991 Laurentian Hormone Conference. Elsevier. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-4832-1968-4.

• Josso N (2008). "Professor Alfred Jost: the builder of modern sex differentiation". Sex Dev. 2 (2): 55–63. doi:10.1159/000129690. PMID 18577872. S2CID 26022942.