CHOLESTEROL FRACTIONATION STUDIES OF THE SERUM OF XANTHELASMA PATIENTS

Abstract

THE ASSOCIATION of hypercholesteremia with xanthelasma has been the subject of study by a number of investigators. Although a fair percentage of these cases show definite hyperlipemia and hypercholesteremia, others show values that are well within the accepted normal range. Thus the significance of the concentration of plasma lipids as an etiological factor in the development of these lesions still remains in doubt and additional studies on the subject are needed. In 1948 Forbes and associates¹ showed that only a small part of the total cholesterol of lyophilized normal plasma or serum is extracted by cold chloroform, while most of the cholesterol of lyophilized serum from nephrotic patients and hypercholesteremic rabbits was thus extracted. This fraction which is thus extracted has been designated the "readily extractable" cholesterol. These investigators expressed the belief that the readily extractable fraction probably represents cholesterol which is either not bound or, at