Plasma free fatty acids in dogs treated with Triton WR-1339

¹ Research Division of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio

Dogs fed a regular diet were given intravenously 250 mg of Triton WR-1339 (a nonionic surface active agent) every 4th day. When sustained lipemia developed, their plasma free fatty acid (FFA) response to epinephrine and glusose was studied and compared with that of normal animals. The time course of the rise (epinephrine) or fall (glucose) of the plasma FFA was similar in the two groups of animals. The Triton-treated dogs had, however, plasma FFA levels twice as high as normals. Plasma FFA, which in control dogs were bound principally to albumin, were mostly associated in the Triton-treated animals with the low-density ß-lipoproteins. A partial shift of FFA from albumin to ß-lipoproteins could be produced in vitro by addition of Triton to normal canine serum.