Progressive Decreased Glucose-tolerance and Glycogen-storage Following Acetoacetate Injection; Prevention by Insulin and Amellin

Abstract

Freshly prepd. Na acetoacetate, when injd. into rabbits kept on germinated gram (Cicer arietinum and green grass, in progressively increasing doses (beginning at .50 mg./kg. body wt.) caused a progressive hyperglycemia after an initial hypoglycemic stage. A gradual decrease of glucose tolerance with pronounced reduction of glycogen storage in the liver and muscle was recorded up to 130 days. When amellin, an antidiabetic complex thio-compound of plant origin isolated by Nath, was injd. daily for 40 days in doses of 10-12 mg./kg. into the hyperglycemic animals it brought the glucose tolerance to the normal limit in spite of simultaneous injn. of the acetoacetate daily. The fasting blood sugar as well as the liver glycogen was also found to come to the normal values. Parallel expts. with insulin, however, did not show such beneficial effects as with amellin. A mechanism of how the intermediary fat metabolites exert their diabetogenic influence and how amellin acts as a protective factor was suggested.