Apolipoprotein B (apoB) is composed of metabolically distinct fractions of higher molecular weight (apoBh) and lower molecular weight (apoBl). When 125I-labeled very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) prepared from recirculating liver perfusates was injected into rats, labeled apoBl was preferentially removed from the plasma and apoBh entered low density lipoprotein (LDL). The time-related movement of labeled apoBh into higher density fractions was independent of that of labeled apoBl. When 125I-labeled triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TRL) prepared from sucrose-fed rats was incubated with plasma from rats injected with heparin and then studied in a recirculating liver perfusion, apoBl was preferentially removed compared to apoBh. Thus, the loss of apoBl of hepatic VLDL in vivo was similar to the loss of apoBl of lipase-treated TRL in vitro. In control perfusions where TRL was incubated with heat-treated postheparin plasma, not only was there less initial hepatic clearance of apoB but the early phase of preferential apoBl removal during 30 min of perfusion was not observed. ApoE removal from perfusates was the same whether or not the TRL had been treated with heparin-releasable lipases. Apoprotein degradation, as indicated by the appearance in the perfusate of labeled degradation products, occurred 30 min after the preferential phase of apoBl removal. These results suggest that hepatic clearance of VLDL and TRL remnants is favored by lipolysis and by the presence of apoBl on the particle that enhances their hepatic binding and degradation.