Semen Khalatov

Born Feb. 14 (26), 1884, in Moscow; died there May 17, 1951. Soviet pathophysiologist. Member of the CPSU from 1921.

Khalatov graduated from the faculty of natural sciences at the University of St. Petersburg in 1908 and from the Military Medical Academy in 1912. He headed the subdepartment of general pathology at the First Leningrad Medical Institute from 1922 to 1929, the subdepartment of pathophysiology at the First Moscow Medical Institute from 1929 to 1947, the experimental laboratory at the Central Oncological Institute from 1947 to 1950, and the pathophysiological laboratory of the Central Institute of Dermatology and Venereology from 1950 to 1951.

Khalatov’s principal works dealt with cholesterol metabolism, endocrinology, and gerontology. He was the first to show experimentally (1912) the pathological role of local deposits of cholesterol compounds in the origin of atherosclerosis and other pathological processes. The experimental model of atherosclerosis evolved by Khalatov and developed by N. N. Anichkov became the basis for further investigations of the disease. Khalatov and his pupils established the pathogenic role in disruptions of lipoid metabolism of the endogenous cholesterol present in atherosclerosis and brain diseases.