Alexander I. Ignatowski: a pioneer in the study of atherosclerosis

Abstract

In 1908, Alexander I. Ignatowski (1875-1955) published his pioneering work that first revealed a relationship between cholesterol-rich food and experimental atherosclerosis. This early experimental work paved a way to the metabolic study of the mechanism of atherosclerosis. Herein, we present a brief account of Ignatowski's work and life.

Keywords: Atherosclerosis/history; Ignatowski A; Russia; cardiology/history; cholesterol, dietary/history; history of medicine, 20th century; internal medicine/history; medical scientists.

Fig. 1 Alexander I. Ignatowski as Professor of Internal Medicine and Dean of the Medical School of the University of Belgrade, ca. 1930. This photograph, taken by Dr. Gradimir Jankovic in 2011, duplicates the portrait on Dr. Ignatowski's gravestone.

Fig. 4 The newly built Clinic of Internal Medicine in Belgrade, 1928. From the archives of the Faculty of Medicine, University Clinical Center of Serbia.

Fig. 3 Students in the histology laboratory at the Medical School of the University of Belgrade in 1928. From the archives of the Faculty of Medicine, University Clinical Center of Serbia.

Fig. 2 Professor Ignatowski with the first graduates of the Medical School of the University of Belgrade. Taken at his Clinic of Internal Medicine in Belgrade, March 1925. From the archives of the Faculty of Medicine, University Clinical Center of Serbia.

Fig. 6 The grave of Alexander I. Ignatowski and his wife, Anastasia, in the Russian Cemetery, Belgrade. This photograph was taken by Dr. Gradimir Jankovic in 2011.

Fig. 5 Professor Ignatowski's Clinic of Internal Medicine, turned into a German military hospital in 1941. From the archives of the Faculty of Medicine, University Clinical Center of Serbia.