Plasma lipids are widely known to be elevated in obese subjects. Since Sumo-wrestlers are considered to be one example of the characteristic human experimental obesity, it could be quite interesting to examine their plasma lipids according to the obesity index.
Plasma lipids were determined on 538 currently Sumo-wriestlers with the age ranging from 15 to 37. Their mean height is 179.7cm and mean body weight is 111kg.
Plasma total cholesterol increased with advancing the obesity index and triglyceride also increased markedly with the index. HDL-cholesterol tended to decrease with increasing obesity index. There were statistically significant changes in those plasma lipid levels between the group of obesity with 9% or less and the group of extreme obesity with 60% or over.
In the same dregree of obesity, HDL-cholesterol tended to decrease in the group of elevated plasma triglyceride level. There was a strong inverse correlation between plasma triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol (r=-0.2662 for younger group, r=-0.2652 for older group. P<0.01). Therefore, plasma triglyceride was considered to be potent determinant on HDL-cholesterol.
Plasma triglyceride was significantly correlated with γ-GTP, and GOT, GPT in certain groups, while these enzyme levels were entirely indifferent to HDL-cholesterol.
Present results are important as the basal correlation for the follow-up study of the human obese subjects.