ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with phospholipid metabolism in eight kinds of diseases: anemias, malaria, cancer, muscular dystrophy, ischemia, diabetes, lung diseases, and liver diseases. Phospholipid levels are decreased in blood plasma and increased in erythrocytes of sickle cell patients, as compared to normal subjects. The sickled erythrocytes seem to be more sensitive to lipid peroxidation than normal cells, since these cells accumulate 2–3 times more malonyldialdehyde than the normal erythrocytes, after 24 h of aerobic incubation. Alloxan diabetes in rats is accompanied by a distinct increase in total contents of phospholipids and their fractions, especially acidic phospholipids in whole blood. Significant changes occur in individual phospholipids of liver, heart, kidney, and brain. Muscular dystrophy in mice leads to an abnormally high lipid metabolism in nerve and muscle tissues. Phospholipid changes have been observed in blood plasma or serum of patients with heart disease.
