The metabolism of sorbitol in the human subject

Abstract

Human diabetic and non-diabetic subjects excreted in the urine less than 3% of an oral dose of 35 g of sorbitol. No sorbitol could be detected in the feces. After 35 g of oral sorbitol, there was no significant increase in blood sugar in normal subjects, but in diabetic subjects the blood sugar increased by a much smaller amount than after glucose. The concentrations of sorbitol in the blood were immeasurably small. Small and insignificant amounts of sorbitol were present in the feces after sorbitol was fed to patients on antibiotic therapy. Experiments with uniformly labeled D(C14)-sorbitol and D-(C14) glucose showed that in the normal and in the mildly diabetic subject at least 75% of orally given sorbitol is rapidly metabolized to CO2. In a diabetic subject requiring insulin the recovery of labeled C in the respiratory CO2 amounted to only 65% and this lower figure was clearly due to the increased proportion of labeled material lost in the urine. It was shown that a substantial proportion of oral sorbitol is rapidly converted into blood sugar and the pathway of this conversion is discussed.