Effect of oxandrolone treatment on the activity of lipoprotein lipase, hepatic lipase and phospholipase A1 of human postheparin plasma.

The effect of a synthetic steroid, oxandrolone, on total postheparin plasma lipolytic activity, postherpain hepatic lipase activity, lipoprotein lipase and phospholipase A1 was studied in seven patients with hypertriglyceridemia. The mean total postheparin lipolytic activity increased 100 per cent during oxandrolone tratement (p smaller than 0.05). This change was caused mainly by postheparin hepatic lipase, whose activity increased on the average more than 2.5 times (p smaller than 0.001). The change in postheparin plasma-lipoprotein-lipase activity was insignificant. A highly significant correlation (r equals +0.87, p smaller than 0.01) was observed between the activities of postheparin hepatic lipase and phospholipase A1 before and during oxandrolone treatment. No relation was observed between serum triglyceride level and various postheparin lipase activities, or between the changes induced by oxandrolone in the level of serum lipids and the activities of postheparin lipases. We conclude that oxandrolone increases the activities of postheparin plasma hepatic lipase and phospholipase A1 but has little influence on lipoprotein lipase.