On Atherosclerosis and Diseases of “Degeneration”

Abstract

Twenty-five years ago, in 1876, when this Academy was formed, atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries was believed to be caused principally by saturated animal fats. This came to be known as the Lipid Theory of Anitzkov, who produced atherosclerotic lesions in rabbit aortas by loading their diet with fat and cholesterol.

Today, 25 years later, while cholesterol and saturated fats are still of causative importance, we know so much more about this disease—its predisposing, exciting, exacerbating, and propelling causes, its mechanisms of progression and termination—that even if we may not have yet succeeded in completely controlling it, we have an armamentarium of remedies now available to slow its progress, with even more promising remedies, we hope, to be available soon. These advances in knowledge of atherogenesis and “degenerative” conditions like arthritis and diabetic complications will be recounted in this paper. The basic underlying processes are genetic (Inheritance), Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation—the I’s of Human Diseases.