1965 Volume 29 Issue 1 Pages 59-72
The disturbance of lipid metabolism has been regarded as one of the important factor in the etiology of atherosclerosis. It is thought that the ability to remove rapidly the absorbed fat from the blood stream is important to prevent the development of atherosclerosis. From this point of view, following observations were carried out. Method The subjects of observation were divided into three groups. Group I consisted of 10 young and healthy persons, group II of 18 aged patients with atherosclerotic diseases and group III of 6 old and clinically normal persons. To these subjects 100 gm of raw oream which contained 25% of fat was orally given early morning after overnight fasting. Then the blood samples were taken immediately before and 30 min., 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 hours after fat intake. Plasma separated from these samples were supplied to determine the optical density and the endogenous lipolytic activity. In each samples, the optical density (O.D.) was measured by the electro-spectrophotometer and the endogenous lipolytic activity (E.L.A.) was determined by the difference of content of nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) prior to and after the incubation of each plasma at 37°C for 60 min.. NEFA content in plasma were measured by the Dole's method and indicated by rEq/ 1. Sometimes, NEFA content in plasma were observed to decrease and in such cases the E.L.A. were indicated by minus values. Result 1) Variations of O.D. in plasma following the oral fat loading The O.D. value of all cases in each group were increased following the oral fat intake and then gradually decreased after reaching to its maximal value. The differences of maximal value of O.D. among three group were not significant. It was observed, on the other hand, that O.D. was delayed in group II to reach its peak and also to recover from its peak compared with the other groups. 2) Variations of NEFA in plasma following the oral fat loading. NEFA content in plasma was gradually increased after the administration of fat in each group, but the obvious differences were not found in the degree of increase among three group. 3) Variations of E.L.A. in plasma following the oral fat loading. A certain degree of E.L.A. was occasionally demonstrated even before the fat intake in each group and mean value of them were 166, 57 and 100 respectively, but there were no significant differences among three group, because its variations were considerably wide. On the other hand, differences of E.L.A. patterns among three groups were very significant. Most cases of group I revealed their E.L.A. increased at the time from 30 min. to two hours after the fat intake and then gradually decreased, but not the minus values. On the contrary, there was few cases in group II, which showed a initial elevation of E.L.A. and many cases of this group indicated the remarkable depression of their activity and frequently showed the minus values of them. E.L.A. pattern in group III showed the mid-type of the other two groups. From these results it is demonstrated that E.L.A. in atherosclerotic patients hardly increase after oral fat intake, then markedly depress and is apt to show minus value compared with control groups. 4) Correlation between the pattern in O.D. and E.L.A. The pattern in O.D. were divided into two types, that is, normal type and delayed type. The former showed its peak within 4 hours after fat intake and the latter showed its peak later than 6 hours after fat intake. Most cases in group I showed normal type in O.D. and plus activity in E.L.A. 4 hours after fat intake. However, in group II, most cases showed delayed type in O.D. and minus activity in E.L.A. 4 hours after fat intake. The pattern in O.D. were also divided into normal and delayed type by the degree of recovery from its peak in two hours. In normal type the O.D. [the rest omitted]