title: Examination of a lognormal distribution equation for describing distributions of diameters of bovine adipocytes.
abstract: Samples of subcutaneous, intermuscular and mesenteric adipose tissues from beef steers were fixed with osmium tetroxide, and freed adipocytes were counted with an automatic particle counter to determine whether a lognormal distribution function would describe adipocyte size distributions more accurately than a normal distribution function. Modes and medians of size distributions generally were larger than means for adipocyte size distributions modeled with a lognormal distribution function. Normalized third and fourth moments of predicted lognormal distributions often were close to 0 and 3, respectively, which are expected values for a normally distributed population. Considerable variation was observed in the skewness of adipocyte size distributions. Both normal and lognormal models for adipocyte size distribution yielded similar means. The lognormal model yielded a greater standard deviation than the normal model for adipocyte size distributions. Smaller chi-square values were found for size distributions modeled with a lognormal than with a normal distribution function. Results suggest that a lognormal distribution function more accurately models the size distributions of bovine adipocytes.
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000166:cytology*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002452:Cell Count; D008297:Male