Robert Martin Boyar (March 10, 1937, New York – November 27, 1978,
Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
,
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
) was a physician and
endocrinologist known for his studies of the
neuroendocrinology
Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology (specifically of physiology) which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine ...
of
puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles i ...
.
Early years and education
Boyar received his MD from
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, 1962. He was a Navy physician during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, and on the medical staff of
Montefiore Medical Center. For 2½ years he was Associate Professor of Internal Medicine,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas.
Scientific discoveries
Boyar is best known for his studies of
gonadotropin secretion in
puberty
Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles i ...
. An American physiologist,
Ernst Knobil, discovered that the anterior pituitary produces pulses of
Luteinizing hormone at about hourly intervals. The luteinizing hormone pulses are the consequence of pulsatile
gonadotropin releasing hormone secretion by the hypothalamus into the pituitary portal circulation that, in turn, is the result of an
oscillator or signal generator in the central nervous system (the "gonadotropin releasing hormone pulse generator"). Boyar demonstrated that in children approaching puberty the Luteinizing Hormone pulses occur only during sleep. This sleep related gonadotropin secretion initiates
testosterone
Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and androgen in Male, males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of Male reproductive system, male reproductive tissues such as testicles and prostate, as well as promoting se ...
secretion in boys and
estradiol secretion in girls, which ultimately result in the clinical characteristics
associated with human puberty. Some investigators have attributed the onset of puberty to a
resonance
Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration whose frequency matches a resonant frequency (or resonance frequency) of the system, defined as a frequency that generates a maximu ...
of
oscillators in the brain. By this mechanism, the gonadotropin pulses that occur during sleep in puberty represent
beats.
References
Bibliography
*Sizonenko, PC. Role of sex steroids during development—integration. in Bourguignon, Jean Pierre & Tony M. Plant. The Onset of Puberty in Perspective: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on the Control of the Onset of Puberty, Held in Liège, Belgium, 26–28 September 1999. Elsevier. Amsterdam & New York 2000. pp 299–306.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyar, Robert M.
American endocrinologists
1937 births
1978 deaths
Physicians from New York (state)
20th-century American physicians