A STUDY BY PAPER ELECTROPHORESIS OF THE SERUM- LIPOPROTEINS IN DIABETIC AND NON-DIABETIC

I N the last few years there has been revival of interest in the role of serum-lipids in the genesis of atheroma. Recent studies have not only shown that the serum-cholesterol concentration is on the average higher in subjects with clinical evidence of atheroma (Steiner and Domanski, 1943), but have focused attention on the physical state of the lipids in the serum and their relationship to serum-proteins. Two main methods of investigation have been used. Gofman and hia colleagues have described studies of serum-lipoproteins by ultracentrifu-gation, and found a correlation between certain fractions of lipoprotein and the occurrence of coronary artery disease (Gofman, Jones, Lindgren, Lyon, Elliot, and Strisower, 1950). The second system of analysis depends on fractionation of the protein by means of cold ethanol followed by determination of the lipids in the various fractions. By the use of this method it has been shown that most of the cholesterol and phospholipid is combined with protein to form a- and /8-lipoprotein, and further that in patients with coronary artery disease the ratio of /?- to a-lipoprotein is increased (Barr, Russ, and Howard, 1951). Th