454 V. BLOOD LIPIDS 



b". Lipemia Retinalis: The diffuse deposition of lipids in the retina 

 frequently occurs in diabetic patients who have a high level of lipemia. 

 This type of lipidosis seems to be definitely related to the diabetic syndrome, 

 since it occurs only in connection with this disease, and is not found in 

 nephrosis, in which a comparable degree of lipemia exists. 631 Moreover, 

 it disappears when the diabetic symptoms are alleviated and the hyperli- 

 pemia is relieved. 631,632 



c'. The Blood Lipids in Pancreatitis: Pancreatitis may also be asso- 

 ciated with a hyperlipemia. Although hyperlipemia has not ordinarily 

 been reported in this disease in children, Kennedy and Collett 633 observed 

 chronic relapsing pancreatitis associated with a decided hyperlipemia in 

 the case of a boy eight years of age. 



d'. The Blood Lipids in Alloxan Diabetes: Kendall and associates 634 

 noted that a transient period of hyperlipemia and hypercholesterolemia 

 occurred in rabbits following the injection of alloxan. When a cholesterol- 

 rich diet was given to alloxan diabetic rabbits, 635 blood cholesterol levels 

 reached much higher levels than was the case of uninjected controls. 

 Atheromata appeared consistently in the controls but in only one diabetic 

 rabbit. 635 According to Payne and Duff, 636 a transitory hyperlipemia may 

 or may not occur during the early stages of alloxan diabetes. In the hyper- 

 lipemic serum, the lipid constituents are, to a great extent, "readily ex- 

 tractable," suggesting that they are not closely associated with the serum 

 proteins, as is the case in normal rabbits. 



(e) Variations in the Blood Lipids Primarily Related to the Sex Hormones. 

 Although, under normal conditions, other than during fasting, sex has little 

 influence on the blood lipids, some of the natural and synthetic sex hor- 

 mones have a marked effect upon these compounds. Glass and co- 

 workers 637 reported that estradiol did not cause any change in the serum 

 lipids or in the low-density lipoproteins of male and female patients. On 

 the other hand, Eilert 638 found that, when ethinyl estradiol was given to 

 women in the ordinary doses employed during menopause, a slight in- 

 crease in total serum lipids was noted ; serum phospholipids were markedly 



631 S. H. McKee and I. M. Rabinowitch, Can. Med. Assoc. J., 25, 530-534 (1931). 



632 L. A. Chase, J. Am. Med. Assoc, 97, 171-172 (1931). 



633 R. L. J. Kennedy and R. W. Collett, Am. J. Diseases Children, 78, 80-87 (1949). 



634 F. E. Kendall, W. Meyer, L. Lewis, and J. Victor, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 60, 

 190-195(1945). 



635 H. C. McGill, Jr., and R. L. Holman, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 72, 72-75 (1949). 



636 T. P. B. Payne and G. L. Duff, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 73, 332-337 (1950). 



637 S. J. Glass, H. Engelberg, R. Marcus, H. B. Jones, and J. W. Gofman, Metabolism, 

 2, 133-136 (1953). 



838 M. L. Eilert, Metabolism, 2, 137-145 (1953). 



