The Effect of Lipemia upon Tissue Oxygen Tension in Man

The effect of varying levels of lipemia upon tissue oxygen tension has been investigated in human subjects with normal and decreased peripheral blood flow. Oxygen tension of the skin was determined during rapid clearing of lipemia to avoid the difficulties inherent in prolonged study over the several hours of increasing lipemia following a fat meal. Regardless of whether peripheral blood flow was normal or decreased, a mean increase of 21.7 per cent in skin oxygen tension occurred during heparin-induced clearing of plasma turbidity. In addition, skin oxygen tension increased during the spontaneous decline of lipemia in 1 subject. Oxygen tension was not increased after a saline placebo injection during lipemia or following heparin injections in subjects with “clear” fasting serum. The observed increase could not be attributed to changes in blood flow. Skin temperature remained stable during the experiments and the subject's response could not be correlated with skin blood flow as measured by the vasodilatation test. The increase in tissueoxygen tension that occurs during clearing of plasma seems most probably to be due to increased diffusion of oxygen to or from the erythrocytes.