[Although Hans Selye is mostly known for his discovery & development of the stress concept, he also introduced the first physiologically sound, structure-activity classification of steroids that was also based on the chemical structure of steroids in 1943. He not only introduced the names of glucocorticoids & mineralocorticoids but discovered the anti- & pro-inflammatory properties, respectively, of these steroids in animal models. Furthermore, he not only described the first stress-induced gastric ulcers in rats (1936) & characterized the first human ‘stress ulcers’ during the air-raids in London during World War II (1943). Thus, Selye was a much more productive & creative scientist than it is generally considered.]

[A brief survey is offering of debates on two long-standing questions in stress studies and theories: 1) question of stress nonspecificity (i.e. homo- or heterogeneity in stress responses), and 2) what is the functional role of central catecholamines in stress mechanisms, especially in stress signaltransduction and in the realization of stress responses.]

[Selye pioneered the stress concept that is ingrained in the vocabulary of daily life. This was originally build on experimental observations that divers noxious agents can trigger a similar triad of endocrine (adrenal enlargement), immune (involution of thymus) and gut (gastric erosion formation) responses as reported in a letter to Nature in 1936. Subsequently, he articulated the underlying mechanisms and hypothesized the existence of a “first mediator” in the hypothalamus able to orchestrate this bodily changes. However he took two generations to identify this mediator. The Nobel Laureate, Roger Guillemin, a former Selye’s PhD student, demonstrated in 1955 the existence of a hypothalamic factor that elicited adrenocorticotropic hormone release from the rat pituitary and named it corticotropin releasing factor (CRF). In 1981, Wylie Vale, a former Guillemin’s Ph Student, characterized CRF as 41 amino acid and cloned the CRF1 and CRF2 receptors. This paves the way to experimental studies establishing that the activation of the CRF signaling pathways in the brain plays a key role in mediating the stress-related endocrine, behavioral, autonomic and visceral responses. The unraveling of the biochemical coding of stress is rooted in Selye legacy continues to have increasing impact on the scientific community.]

[Glucocorticoid hormones may have dual action on the stomach: physiological gastroprotective and pathological proulcerogenic one. In physiological conditions, even in acute stress situations, glucocorticoids have an adaptive effect on the stomach and, therefore, are gastroprotective. The findings that we review in this article suggest that glucocorticoids released during acute stress are naturally occurring protective factors that play an important role in maintenance of the gastric mucosal integrity.]

[Science assumed in recent decades an increasingly important role in the regulatory field. Regulatory science is now regarded as established specific brunch of science. A disturbing anomaly, the emergence of fraudulent data is of major concern both in the field of research and in the regulation. Hans Selye’s work on stress, on several forms of pluricausal diseases and on other experimental models came into the focus of interest on the occasion of the Selye Symposium - 2013 held in May 2013 at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.]