Commentary on Glycerol Kinase Deficiency with Increased Triglycerides and Weight Gain: Pseudo or Real?

evidence that glycerol did not account for all of the TG observed in this patient is found in the lipoprotein metabolism profile and gel electrophoresis results (Fig. 1).In lane 3, clear bands were visible for chylomicrons and VLDL, which were also supported by the TG measurements after ultracentrifugation showing 291 mg/dL (3.3 mmol/L) of VLDL-TG and 102 mg/dL (1.2 mmol/L) of chylomicron-TG.This was also supported by the slight turbidity observed in the plasma specimen (Fig. 1).In this case, the hyperglycerolemia alone could not have resulted in these effects on either the sample (turbidity) or lipoprotein metabolism profile/gel electrophoresis results.This data clearly demonstrates that this case represents a mix of "pseudo" and "true" hypertriglyceridemia.Our case is consistent with the observation that hyperglycerolemia and true hypertriglyceridemia can coexist in GKD patients (7, 9) and supports the known role of GKD in altering expression of glucose and lipid metabolism genes (10).It should be noted that the risk of acute pancreatitis increases progressively with serum TG concentrations above 500 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L).In lieu of having "blanking" TG assays available, it is important that GKD patients with apparently increased TG concentrations undergo full lipoprotein metabolism profiling to provide an accurate assessment of TG concentration and definitively rule out the possibility of true hypertriglyceridemia.