The effect of intravenous injections of triton WR-1339 on the lipids of the plasma and liver lymph of rabbits.

1. A single intravenous injection of 400 mg./kg. Triton WR-1339 caused a marked rise in the plasma lipids of rabbits. Liver and intestinal lymph lipids increased slightly during this mobilization of plasma lipids. 2. There was a reorganization of the electrophoretic distribution of the plasma and lymph lipoproteins. The normal lipoproteins disappeared and were replaced by a lipid component which failed to migrate on filter paper. 3. In animals in which a lipaemic state had been maintained for several days, the liver lymph appeared milky, due to the presence of very large numbers of lipid particles. The concentrations of cholesterol, phospholipid and total fatty acids in the lymph of these animals were about 20 per cent of the plasma levels. 4. In these circumstances lipids mobilized from the liver probably pass directly from the hepatic cells to the blood capillaries arid the lymph transfers an insignificant fraction. While the plasma lipids are accumulating, some fat leaks out of the blood capillaries into the tissue spaces and enters the lymph, where it is found in the form of particulate lipid. This leakage occurs particularly in the liver.