Lipolytic activity of post-heparin plasma in hyperglyceridemia

A standard assay has been developed for the lipolytic activity of post-heparin plasma permitting rate measurements with zero order kinetics over wide ranges of enzymatic activity and concentrations of plasma glycerides. Measurements were made in 60 subjects with hyperglyceridemia, 18 of whom had been further subclassified by dietary studies into either fat-induced or carbohydrate-induced types. Activity in the majority of subjects with hyperglyceridemia, including all of the carbohydrate-induced type, was equal to or greater than that found in normal subjects. Subjects with fat-induced hyperglyceridemia, with one exception, and some of their relatives had abnormally low values. The level of activity in both normal and hyperglyceridemic subjects was uniformly dependent upon prior dietary fat intake.