Place of lipid theory in history of study of atherosclerosis

INTRODUCTION: Despite the significant advances in the study of atherosclerosis in recent decades, the diseases associated with it still remain one of the leading problems of modern Western society. In the complicated history of the study of atherosclerosis, various theories have been proposed that attempted to explain its nature from positions of the scientific knowledge of those years. АIM: To analyze the place of lipid disorders in various theories of atherogenesis that have been proposed in different historic periods and have shaped the current understanding of its nature and are the basis for future research. The lipid theory, proposed more than a hundred years ago, is still the basis for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis. Subsequent findings on the role of endothelial dysfunction, on the importance of immune cells and innate immune mechanisms, and the importance of vascular hemodynamic disturbances, have shaped today's understanding of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, which regards it as a complex chain of immune and metabolic events occurring over many years and involving various cells of the vascular wall and the bloodstream. Much of the data on the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis obtained to date have no therapeutic application and are promising areas for future research. CONCLUSION: The lipid theory of atherogenesis has passed a complicated way from understanding the role of lipids as a simple substrate for development of atherosclerosis to the fact of their performing complex immune and metabolic functions and being an important diagnostic and therapeutic target.