Nikolai Anichkov

Nikolay Nikolayevich Anichkov, spelled Anitschkow in German literature, was a Russian pathologist who lived from 1885, born in Saint Petersburg, to 1964. He is credited with first describing the specialized myocardial cells now called Anitschkow cells, or cardiac histiocytes, and with showing the role of cholesterol in the development of atherosclerosis. In 1958 William Dock compared the importance of his classic work to Robert Koch's discovery of the tubercle bacillus, and the biochemist D. Steinberg later suggested that earlier recognition of his findings could have shortened the cholesterol controversy by decades. He also elaborated doctrines on the reticuloendothelial system and on autogenic infections. This entry records what was held and argued about his work, and is not medical advice.