Lipoprotein lipase activity of huuman adipose tissue in different types of hyperlipidemia.

Abstract

Abstract Lipoprotein lipase activity (LPLA) of subcutaneous adipose tissue has been assayed in 249 subjects, who have been grouped according to the electrophoretic pattern of serum lipoproteins or according to a classification based on serum triglyceride and cholesterol determinations with groups corresponding to the electrophoretic types. Type I was not represented in the material. Type IV and group 4 as well as the only three cases with type III are characterized by a lower LPLA per wet weight of the tissue than a serum lipid normal group. Subjects with type II A or group 2 A have about normal LPLA levels, while those with group 2 B seem to have an intermediate LPLA level. The estimated total body content of adipose tissue LPLA was about the same in the different groups, while this estimate as well as the tissue concentration of the enzyme was higher for women than for men in the lipid normal groups. Increasing degree of obesity was correlated with decreasing LPLA, while age per se does not seem to influence the activity level. There was a negative correlation between LPLA and the serum triglyceride level, but the dependence of this correlation on other variables seems to differ between the sexes.