Title:Kinetic Measurement Techniques in the Evaluation of Lipid Metabolism
Volume: 10
Issue: 3
Author(s): Gregory C. Henderson
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Isotope dilution, metabolic flux, precursor product, tracer.
Abstract: Lipid metabolism plays a critical role in health, and there are a variety of methodologies available to investigators
to determine how rates of metabolic processes respond to drugs and other interventions aimed at altering lipid metabolism.
Commonly the abundance of lipids in the body is measured (e.g., plasma lipoprotein concentrations), but this
static measure offers only a limited view on the dynamics and complexity of lipid metabolism as it pertains to health and
disease. The synthesis and clearance rates of lipoproteins provide critical information pertaining to cardiovascular disease,
and the mobilization of triglyceride and fatty acids and partitioning between metabolic fates affects the body composition
and other aspects of health. Various techniques are available to measure the kinetics of lipid metabolism including stable
isotope approaches, radio-isotope approaches, and non-isotopic approaches. The focus of this review is to describe various
techniques for evaluating lipid kinetics in animal models and humans using isotopes as well as other techniques, and recent
advances are highlighted.
