Studies in the Relationship of Amino Acids to Infantile Hypoglycemia

Abstract

Spontaneous hypoglycemia is not a disease but an indication of a defect in the metabolism of glucose in the organism. Excellent reviews by Skillern,¹ Conn,² and McQuarrie^3,4 have indicated the large number of possible etiologic factors. Several authors have emphasized that hypoglycemia occurring in infants and children is not an uncommon condition. In McQuarrie's³ report, 26 of 43 cases of hypoglycemia of infancy were classified as idiopathic and the author referred to these as "idiopathic infantile hypoglycemosis." In 1956, Cochrane et al.⁵ observed that certain hypoglycemic infants treated with a high-protein diet had an increased frequency of hypoglycemic attacks. This clinical observation that protein aggravates some cases of infantile hypoglycemia was supported by the finding of a marked fall in blood sugar in three cases after the administration of the amino acid L-leucine.⁵ The selection of this particular amino acid was partly fortuitous circumstance