Abstract
Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity in patients with lipid metabolism dysfunction has been analyzed by measuring plasma LPL which is liberated from blood vessels after heparin injection. However, heparin administration makes the application of this method as a routine test difficult. In this study, we determined LPL in serum as protein mass ELISA. We studied the correlation between LPL and lipids and other parameters associated with diabetes mellitus, using serum collected without heparin injection. The mean value of LPL of ambulatory medical examinees was 53.1 (20.1) ng/ml (n=155). Serum LPL correlated negatively with triglyceride and HbAlc. In insulin-treated diabetes and other hypoglycemic drug-treated diabetes, serum LPL correlated negatively with triglyceride. When olive oil was administered orally, serum LPL in 3 of 4 subjects increased and reached maximum levels at 4 hours. These results were similar to those of postheparin LPL activity (PHLA) previously reported. Therefore, serum LPL can provide an alternative to PHLA in the analysis of diseases associated with abnormal lipid metabolism.
