Effects of Ammonium Chloride Acidosis on the Action of Insulin in Dogs

Abstract

To determine the effects of a nonketogenic type of acidosis on the action of insulin, insulin sensitivity tests were made with 6 nondiabetic fasted dogs in normal states and in states of severe acidosis induced by slow intraven. perfusion of NH4 Cl. During the development of acidosis in the fasted animals, concns. of sugar in the blood tended to rise slightly, with maximal increases around 35 mg./100 cc. above the fasting level. Standard doses of insulin admd. intraven. in severely acidotic dogs produced less falll in the concn. of blood sugar, with slower rate of fall and slower recovery to initial levels in the 3-hr. test period, than in the same dogs in nonacidotic states. Levels of plasma K and inorganic P tended to change very little or to remain stationary, after injns. of insulin in the acidotic dogs; whereas in nonacidotic states changes in concn. of plasma K and inorganic P (both sharply decreasing and then returning to initial levels) paralleled closely the changes of blood sugar induced by insulin. Conditions of acidosis probably inhibit the action of insulin by interfering with processes of phosphoryla-tion that are involved in the cellular uptake of sugar, K and P from the plasma.