CHAPTER XVII 



FAT-SPLITTING TISSUE FERMENTS. FAT FORMATION 

 FROM PROTEIN. FATTY INFILTRATION AND FATTY 

 DEGENERATION: ORIGIN OF MILK-FAT. 



FAT-SPLITTING TISSUE FERMENTS 



FKOM the general knowledge we possess as to the fate 

 of fat in the living body there is no doubt that even outside 

 the intestinal tract a voluminous catabolism of neutral fat 

 takes place. We see a flood of fat pouring into the blood 

 after ingestion of fat-bearing food, and after a time dis- 

 appearing; we see that in wasting processes the fat disap- 

 pears from its depots in cells and tissues ; we notice in the 

 processes of fat-migration of every type how the fat is 

 mobilized in the compass of the large depots. There is 

 certainly probability in the assumption of a close relation 

 between fat mobilization and fat cleavage and in the belief 

 that, just as the stable glycogen passes into solution as soon 

 as the economy requires it, the same is true of fat. From 

 what has been said it might be supposed that the fat, which 

 according to Pfliiger's opinion can pass from the intestine 

 only after cleavage, can also only pass through the wall of 

 the blood capillaries when in fully split state, as soap. Many 

 authorities have earnestly tried to attribute it to the cleav- 

 age of fat in the blood and the tissues. 1 



Cleavage of Fat in the Blood. We next ask ourselves 

 what is there in the proposition of fat cleavage in the 

 blood. It has been previously stated that Hanriot, when 

 engaged upon the subject, came to the conclusion that there 

 exists in the blood a lipolytic ferment ; while the opponents 

 of this view 2 were of the opinion that at most there is an 



1 Literature upon Fat-splitting Tissue Ferments: W. Connstein, Ergebn. 

 d. Physiol., 3, 223-226, 1904; H. M. Vernon, Intracellular Enzymes, London, 

 John Murray, pp. 53-60, 1908; C. Oppenheimer, Die Fermente, 3d ed., 5-24, 

 1909; F. Samuely, Handb. d. Biochem., 533-537, 1909; A. Magnus-Levy and 

 L. F. Meyer, ibid., 4', 457, 1909. 



* Arthus, Doyen and Morel. 



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