Intramural and pericapillary distribution of lipids in gingival tissue of patients with carbohydrate-induced hyperglyceridemia.

Gingival biopsy was performed on 16 patients with carbohydrate-induced hyperglyceridemia, in the attempt to discover histological abnormalities in the capillaries. For comparison, similar studies were also made on four patients with essential familial hypercholesteremia, on five whose hyperglyceridemia had been kept under control by a low carbohydrate diet for 6 to 26 months, and on eight healthy, normolipemic subjects. Variable amounts of Oil Red O-stainable lipid material were demonstrated both in and around the capillary wall in 13 of the 16 untreated hyperglyceridemic patients. Little or no such lipid-staining material was demonstrated in the biopsy material obtained from the remaining groups of subjects so studied. Microangiopathy of the pre-diabetic and diabetic type characterized by capillary basement membrane thickening was not demonstrated in any of the hyperlipemic patients in this series. Evidence is presented to support the concept that a sustained chylomicronemia is the primary factor in the production of the intramural and pericapillary collection of Oil Red O-staining lipids in these hyperglyceridemic patients.