[Adipocyte size in primary hypertriglyceridemia with and without obesity (author's transl)].

Adipose tissue cellularity of patients with endogenous hypertriglyceridemia whether associated with obesity or not has been studied by means of a semiautomatic method of counting and sizing osmium tetroxide fixed adipocytes. Cell population distributions were analyzed by mathematical computation. The Coulter Counter system was able to determine mean diameter (or volume) and cell size dispersion which defined adipocyte population. An overall shift of cell population size has been found to characterize adipose tissue cellularity of the different groups examined. Adipocyte population in the obese was defined by increased fat cell size with overlapping distributions between both groups of same weight. Nevertheless normolipemic obese patients were characterized by larger cell size than hypertriglyceridemic subjects matched for adiposity index. The results are discussed in relation to the removal defect found in endogenous hypertriglyceridemia.