“Renal Hyperlipemia” in Dogs and Rats. ∗

Summary and Conclusions

(1) Unilateral nephrectomy was performed under local anesthesia in 3 dogs and was followed by a transient hyperlipemia involving cholesterol, lecithin, and total lipids. It thus is shown that the general anesthesia used in previous studies had no part in the development of the hyperlipemia following renal ablation.

(2) Mercury bichloride given by intravenous injection to 5 dogs produced in all animals a hyperlipemia identical in pattern and intensity with the reaction observed when intramuscular or subcutaneous injections had been used. The local tissue necrosis which occasionally results from intramuscular and subcutaneous administration of mercury bichloride thus cannot be the cause of the hyperlipemia previously described.

(3) The same hyperlipemia reaction is observed in rats after intramuscular and intravenous injection of mercury bichloride. However, no immediate rise in serum lipids was observed after the oral administration of mercury bichloride. It remains to be investigated whether an effect of this agent upon the liver might explain the different action of enteral and parenteral administration of mercury bichloride.

(4) It was found in 6 dogs that the oral administration of carbon tetrachloride leads to hypolipemia involving cholesterol, phospholipids, and total lipids. This makes it clear that the hyperlipemia previously observed after it had been injected intramuscularly was not due to carbon tetrachloride but to the necrosis of the tissues in which it had been injected.