Figure 2

Compartmental model used for analysing LDE¹⁴ C- cholesteryl ester (¹⁴ C-CE) and³ H-cholesterol curves (³ H-FC). The model consists of four discrete compartments: two for ¹⁴ C-CE and two for ³ H-FC labels. All compartments are in the intravascular space (1_CE, 2_CE, 1_FC and 2 _FC). LDE, a non-protein lipoprotein nanoemulsion labeled with ¹⁴ C-CE and ³ H-FC were injected intravenously in a bolus (arrow with asterisk) into compartment 1_CE and 1_FC, respectively. A fraction k_1,0CE and k_{1,0 FC} of the labeled lipids is removed to the extravascular space. Competitively, fraction k_1,2CE and k_1,2FC of the injected lipids are converted into compartments 2_CE and 2_FC due to the incorporation of apolipoproteins available in the plasma. Subsequently, the material of those compartments are transferred to the extravascular space following the k_2,0CE and k_2,0FC routes. The samplings, represented by triangles correspond to the indiscriminate combination of compartments 1 and 2.