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Single injection of a fat emulsion into the blood stream in man resulted into a complex eliminationcurve, when total triglyceride (TG) concentration in plasma was followed. The complexity of the curve was studied by separation of the plasma TG either by centrifugation or by a density gradient method with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). Centri‐fugation of plasma at 48.6 times 104 G‐minutes did not solve the complex curves. The PVP method gave three TG fractions: fat emulsion in the top fraction and endogenous plasma TG in the bottom and middle fraction. Elimination curves obtained with the PVP method were compos‐site. The TG concentration in the top fraction, which was zero in fasting plasma, increased after injection of the emulsion and then decreased. This decrease could be resolved into a linear phase at high TG concentration and an exponential phase at lower concentrations. The curve for the bottom fraction showed a slowly increasing concentration and that for the middle fraction showed a rapid increase followed by a decrease. The complex appearance of the curve without fractionation of the TG depends on these two latter lipid fractions which change in concentration during the elimination. The difficulties in interpreting the elimination curves obtained by the centrifugation method was with the gradient shown to depend on heterogeneity in the top TG fraction obtained by centrifugation.

The possible influence on blood polymorphonuclear (PMN) granulocyte functions of the small intestinal shunt operation for obesity was studied in 10 massively overweight patients. They were investigated prior to operation and for 9 months afterwards, when they had lost an average of 32 kg body weight. Preoperatively they showed reduced PMN bactericidal capacity and increased PMN adherence compared with controls of normal weight. During the first 2--4 months postoperatively all patients displayed a gradually increasing bactericidal capacity, which then reached levels similar to the controls and remained so for the rest of the follow-up period. This enhancement was more easily assessed by a new in vitro assay in which each PMN was provided with 30--40 bacteria, than by a standard assay using 2--4 bacteria per granulocyte. PMN adherence decreased during the first postoperative months and then returned to preoperative levels. The changes in PMN functions were not statistically related either to each other or to the continuous loss of body wieght. Thus, impairment of PMN killing function occurring in extremely obese patients became normalized after small bowel shunt operation, while the high adherence remained unchanged.