Studies on the hypertriglyceridemia in pregnant rats

The study has been performed in order to obtain information on the mechanism responsible for the hypertriglyceridemia found in pregnant rats. The results show that the whole plasma triglyceride flux is increased by 65% in late gestation. It has been found that labeled VLDL triglyceride originating from pregnant rats shows no delay in plasma disappearance when injected into the circulation of non pregnant female rats. Contrariwise, labeled VLDL triglyceride originating from non pregnant rats when injected into pregnant rats shows a delay in disappearance from the circulation. From these results the conclusion can be drawn that the delay in labeled plasma triglyceride disappearance in late gestation is not caused by a possibly abnormal VLDL showing a decrease in affinity of lipoprotein substrate for lipoprotein lipase. Therefore, we interpret the delay in labeled plasma triglyceride disappearance in late gestation in terms of a lowered removal capacity of plasma triglyceride by extrahepatic tissue.