A study of different methods for the assay of lipoprotein lipase activity in human adipose tissue

A method for the assay of lipoprotein lipase activity (LPLA) in heparin eluates of needle biopsies of adipose tissue is presented. A serum activated phosphatidestabilized emulsion of labelled triolein has been used as substrate. This method and a previously described method using heparin eluates as enzyme source and a commercial triglyceride emulsion, Ediol, as substrate, showed a high degree of correlation (correlation coefficient = 0.94) when parallel determinations were performed on biopsies from 16 subjects. Further, the Ediol method similarly correlated well with a method for LPLA assay, previously described by Nilsson-Ehle and Belfrage, on acetone-ether extracts of adipose tissue (correlation coefficient = 0.88; 19 subjects).