Hepatic lipase and lipoprotein lipase in postheparin plasma in liver disease. Relations to plasma proteins

Abstract

Hepatic lipase (HL) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) in postheparin plasma have been studied in patients with different liver disorders and in a reference group. The dose of heparin (100 I.U./kg body weight) used intravenously to get maximal release of both HL and LPL was the same in patients and in healthy individuals. The release of HL was maximal in healthy controls after 2–5 min, but in patients with liver disease the maximum was not reached until 15 min after heparin administration. The time course of the release of LPL showed the same pattern in patients and controls. The activity of HL was below the lowest observation in the reference group in 8 out of 20 patients with liver diseases, and was not measurable in 3 of them (2 with chronic active hepatitis and 1 with alcoholic cirrhosis). The activity of hepatic lipase was positively correlated with the levels of coagulation factors and with the concentration of prealbumin in the total patient material. The results indicate that low activity of hepatic lipase is a sign of liver parenchymatous injury, and our study gives indirect evidence of the hepatic origin of this enzyme in man.