Heparin-released lipolytic activity in the forearm vascular bed in patients with hypertriglyceridaemia

Hypertriglyceridaemia (HTG) may be caused by increased production or decreased removal of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL)or by a combination of these mechanisms. A decreased lipoproteinlipase activity (LLA) in the vascular wall of the tissues could be the mechanism of impaired removal. Therefore, the release of lipase activity from the forearm musculature after regional arterial injection of heparin was studied in healthy volunteers and patients with HTG. Heparin was injected in the doses 1.5, 15 and 150 i.u. and arterial and deep venous blood was sampled simultaneously at short intervals and analysed for LLA using intralipid with triple 14C-oleate as substrate. There was no significant difference in release of lipolytic activity between the groups and there was no significant correlation between plasma triglyceride concentration and LLA release in the HTG group or the whole material. Thus, deficient skeletal muscle LLA does not seem to be a general causative mechanism in HTG.