THE RELATION OF NEUTRAL FAT TO LACTESCENCE OF SERUM

It has long been recognized that the cloudy or lactescent serum occurring in certain diseases contains an abnormally large amount of neutral fat (1), though a quantitative relationship between neutral fat and lactescence has not been established. In the present investigation the ultracentrifuge has been utilized to study the suspended lipid particles which are responsible for such lactescence. By analyzing a variety of clear and lactescent sera having high concentrations of one or more lipid components the relationship of neutral fat to lactescence has been verified and quantitatively defined. METHODS Serum lipids were determined before and after the removal of the suspended lipid particles by flotation in the ultracentrifuge. The technique of Van Eck, Peters, and Man (2) was modified as described below to permit