The effect of intravenous phosphatide on the sugar excretion of the phloridzinised dog

PARENTERAL injection of fats has never been a successful procedure. Failure of absorption is at least partially due to the physical properties of these substances. Fatty acids and their glycerol esters are notoriously insoluble in water, consequently, subcutaneous injection is followed by only very partial absorp- tion and, usually, by the production of a foreign body tumour. Intravenous injection is seldom well borne because of emboli and further because it can readily be shown that many of the fat particles must be phagocytosed by the reticulo-endothelial system to remove them from the blood. They appear to act usually more as foreign bodies than as metabolites.