L'édifiante histoire du cholestérol : de la pierre de fiel au récepteur aux LDL

The history of the cholesterol begun in 1758, when François-Paul Poulletier de la Salle discovered a new organic substance in gallstones. In 1816, a famous French chemist, Michel-Eugène Chevreul, precized the physicochemical characteristics of this lipidic substance and named it “cholesterine”. In 1857, a German pathologist, Rudolf Virchow, related the arterial atherosclerotic lesions to a possible accumulation of cholesterine. In 1913, Nicolaï Anitschkow from Saint-Petersburg, by feeding rabbits with cholesterol induced hypercholesterolemia and arterial lesions closely mimicking those described in human atheroma. Then, several other scientists worked on the metabolism, properties, physiological function and dosage of cholesterol. In the late 1950s and 1960s emerged epidemiological and clinical evidences for a direct implication of hypercholesterolemia in the progression of human atherosclerosis and coronaropathy. Despite the criticisms of unbelievers, lowering blood cholesterol became a public health goal. However several pioneering dietary intervention gave disappointing results. The discovery of the LDL receptor by Joseph L. Goldstein and Michael S. Brown, the discovery of statins and large-scale clinical trials confirmed the lipid and cholesterol hypothesis…, despite some skeptic individuals who still refused to close the cholesterol controversy.