Secretion of Insulin Induced by Amino Acids and Glucose in Diabetes Mellitus1

Abstract

A mixture of 10 essential amino acids and 1-arginine alone were administered intravenously to patients with mild maturityonset type of diabetes, to subjects with subclinical diabetes (normal standard glucose tolerance test but abnormal cortisone-glucose tolerance test) and to healthy subjects. In addition, glucose was administered orally to each group of subjects. Amino acid-induced secretion of insulin was subnormal in mild maturity-onset type of diabetes, and a similar but less marked defect was also found in subjects with subclinical diabetes mellitus. These 2 groups also secreted less insulin in response to oral glucose than did the healthy subjects. The demonstration of subnormal insulin secretion in patients with mild diabetes and in subjects with subclinical diabetes in response to the infusion of amino acids as well as to orally administered glucose points again to functional impairment of pancreatic islets at these stages of the disease.