Lee West Henderson (1930-2017).

Abstract

The world of nephrology and dialysis will never be the same with the loss of one of its most distinguished and respected members, Lee W. Henderson, MD, FACP, who passed away on July 3, 2017 at the age of 86. Lee possessed an uncanny understanding of dialysis physiology. His extraordinary contributions in the dialysis field bear testimony to his brilliant mind. The field of dialysis is left with a void that is hard to fill, not only because it has lost an original thinker and an innovative scientist but also a cherished and wonderful human being who was a friend and mentor to many of us. Lee was born in New York in 1930. After finishing at Harvard Medical School (1949–1953) and training at University of Pennsylvania (1953–1961), he came back to Brigham and Women Hospital to work with Dr. John Merrill. He published his first paper on peritoneal dialysis with Dr. Merrill in 1962 1. In 1963, he moved to University of Pennsylvania, where he served for 11 years as Assistant and Associate Professor. During that time, he published his landmark paper in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in collaboration with Dr. Karl Nolph 2. This publication described a kinetic model for mass transport of urea from blood to the peritoneal cavity for the first time. In the same publication, Henderson and Nolph reporterd similarities in the urea and inulin sieving coefficients 2. Around the same time, he also published his remarkable work on convective transport 3. In the late 1960s, Henderson worked with Bluemle to evaluate hemodialyzer functions 4, 5. He reported that the polysulfone membrane was highly permeable and could be designed to provide superior size-selectivity. This subsequently allowed him to test the middle molecule hypothesis. In 1975, Henderson and coworkers published two landmark papers on “convective blood cleansing modality” 4, 6. While working on hemodiafiltration, Henderson also expounded his understanding of the phenomenon of isolated ultrafiltration for the treatment of fluid overload 7. This concept ushered in a new era of volume management in the dialysis world. Both these achievements were revolutionary in concept. In 1975, Henderson joined the University of California at San Diego where he served as professor for 13 years. During that time, in 1983, Lee and his coworkers published the “Interleukin Hypothesis” in the journal, Blood Purification. The interleukin hypothesis described the intradialytic activation of circulating monocytes and the association of a laboratory biocompatibility index with clinical abnormalities 8. Thus was launched another novel era in the field of membrane biocompatibility. In 1989, Lee joined Baxter Healthcare, Chicago, IL, USA as its Vice President. His move to Chicago was largely due to the unique opportunity of getting involved with Baxter's Extramural Grant Program (EGP), which later was called the “Renal Discoveries.” Under the extraordinary leadership of Lee, this became the largest research program in the world dedicated to the prolonging and improving the quality of life for the patients with kidney disease. Through this program, EGP disbursed 25 million dollars on more than 700 projects in more than 20 countries, resulting in over 700 publications with the average impact factor of 4.9. He achieved this huge success at a time when NIH was downsizing its research grants for nephrology. With this tremendous success, Henderson laid the foundation for other extramural research activities such as Baxter Novum, a research center that is focused on improving outcomes in end-stage renal disease. It is a division of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. The tremendous success of these programs is a testimony to Henderson's leadership and creative qualities besides his invaluable contributions to the world of dialysis 9. After his retirement, he lived in Connecticut and subsequently in Washington. He continued to publish his work even after his retirement. His last scientific paper was published in 2015 10. Currently, over 2 million people are suffering from end-stage renal disease. These patients, their families, their treating physicians and nurses, as well as current researchers in nephrology owe a huge debt to Lee due to his extraordinary accomplishments as a physician as well as a supporter of research. Lee Henderson will be greatly missed by the nephrology communities all over the world.