Bruce D. Given

Twenty-four-hour profiles and pulsatile patterns of insulin secretion in normal and obese subjects.

The pattern of endogenous insulin secretion over a 24-h period, which included three mixed meals, was evaluated in 14 normal volunteers and 15 obese subjects. Insulin secretory rates were calculated from plasma C-peptide levels using individually derived C-peptide kinetic parameters and a validated open two-compartment model of peripheral C-peptide kinetics. Insulin secretion rates were consistently elevated in the obese subjects under basal conditions (11.6 +/- 1.2 vs. 5.4 +/- 0.5 nmol/h) and in the 4 h after breakfast (139 +/- 15 vs. 63 +/- 5 nmol/4 h, P less than 0.001), lunch (152 +/- 16 vs. 67 +/- 5 nmol/4 h, P less than 0.001), and dinner (145 +/- 18 vs. 65 +/- 6 nmol/4 h, P less than 0.001). In the normal subjects, basal insulin secretion represented 50 +/- 2.1% of total 24-h insulin production, insulin secretion returned to baseline between meals, and equal quantities of insulin were secreted in the 4 h after breakfast, lunch, and dinner, despite the fact that subjects consumed half the number of calories at breakfast compared to lunch and dinner. Overall glucose responses were also similar after the three meals. In contrast, the pattern of insulin secretion in obese subjects was largely normal, albeit set at a higher level. However, the insulin secretion rate after meals did not return to baseline, and the secretion rate immediately before lunch (350.5 +/- 81.9 pmol/min) and dinner (373.6 +/- 64.8 pmol/min) was considerably higher than the secretion rate immediately before breakfast (175.5 +/- 18.5 pmol/min). In these overweight subjects, the glucose response after lunch was lower than after dinner. Analysis of individual 24-h insulin secretory profiles in the normal subjects revealed that insulin secretion was pulsatile. On average 11.1 +/- 0.5 pulses were produced in each 24-h period. The most prevalent temporal distribution of postmeal secretory pulses was two pulses after breakfast and three pulses after both lunch and dinner. Insulin secretion was also pulsatile during the period without meal stimuli: 3.9 +/- 0.3 pulses occurred during the period of overnight sampling and in the 3-h period before ingestion of the breakfast meal. In the obese subjects, the number and timing of secretory pulses was similar to those of normal volunteers, although the amplitude of the pulses was significantly greater. In both groups of subjects, greater than 80% of insulin pulses were concomitant with a pulse in glucose concentration in the postmeal period. The concomitancy rate was significantly lower in the interval without the meal stimuli, averaging 47% in both groups. Thus in obesity, although hypersecretion of insulin can be documented, the temporal pattern of secretion i s largely unaltered, which suggests that the functioning beta cell mass is enhance, but normal regulatory mechanisms influencing secretion are still operative.

Abnormal Patterns of Insulin Secretion in Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus

To determine whether non-insulin-dependent diabetes is associated with specific alterations in the pattern of insulin secretion, we studied 16 patients with untreated diabetes and 14 matched controls. The rates of insulin secretion were calculated from measurements of peripheral C-peptide in blood samples taken at 15- to 20-minute intervals during a 24-hour period in which the subjects ate three mixed meals. Incremental responses of insulin secretion to meals were significantly lower in the diabetic patients (P less than 0.005), and the increases and decreases in insulin secretion after meals were more sluggish. These disruptions in secretory response were more marked after dinner than after breakfast, and a clear secretory response to dinner often could not be identified. Both the control and diabetic subjects secreted insulin in a series of discrete pulses. In the controls, a total of seven to eight pulses were identified in the period from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., including the three post-meal periods (an average frequency of one pulse per 105 to 120 minutes), and two to four pulses were identified in the remaining 10 hours. The number of pulses in the patients and controls did not differ significantly. However, in the patients, the pulses after meals had a smaller amplitude (P less than 0.03) and were less frequently concomitant with a glucose pulse (54.7 +/- 4.9 vs. 82.2 +/- 5.0, P less than 0.001). Pulses also appeared less regularly in the patients. During glucose clamping to produce hyperglycemia (glucose level, 16.7 mmol per liter [300 mg per deciliter]), the diabetic subjects secreted, on the average, 70 percent less insulin than matched controls (P less than 0.001). These data suggest that profound alterations in the amount and temporal organization of stimulated insulin secretion may be important in the pathophysiology of beta-cell dysfunction in diabetes.

Quantitative study of insulin secretion and clearance in normal and obese subjects.

The secretion and hepatic extraction of insulin were compared in 14 normal volunteers and 15 obese subjects using a previously validated mathematical model of insulin secretion and rate constants for C-peptide derived from analysis of individual decay curves after intravenous bolus injections of biosynthetic human C-peptide. Insulin secretion rates were substantially higher than normal in the obese subjects after an overnight fast (86.7 +/- 7.1 vs. 50.9 +/- 4.8 pmol/m2 per min, P less than 0.001, mean +/- SEM), over a 24-h period on a mixed diet (279.6 +/- 24.2 vs. 145.8 +/- 8.8 nmol/m2 per 24 h, P less than 0.001), and during a hyperglycemic intravenous glucose infusion (102.2 +/- 10.8 vs. 57.2 +/- 2.8 nmol/m2 per 180 min, P less than 0.001). Linear regression analysis revealed a highly significant relationship between insulin secretion and body mass index. Basal hepatic insulin extraction was not significantly different in the normal and obese subjects (53.1 +/- 3.8 vs. 51.6 +/- 4.0%). In the normal subjects, fasting insulin did not correlate with basal hepatic insulin extraction, but a significant negative correlation between fasting insulin and hepatic insulin extraction was seen in obesity (r = -0.63, P less than 0.02). This finding reflected a higher extraction in the six obese subjects with fasting insulin levels within the range of the normal subjects than in the nine subjects with elevated fasting insulin concentrations (61 +/- 3 vs. 45 +/- 6%, P less than 0.05). During the hyperglycemic clamp, the insulin secretion rate increased to an average maximum of 6.2-fold over baseline in the normal subjects and 5.8-fold in the obese subjects. Over the same time, the peripheral insulin concentration increased 14.1-fold over baseline in the normals and 16.6-fold over baseline in the obese, indicating a reduction in the clearance of endogenously secreted insulin. Although the fall in insulin clearance tended to be greater in the obese subjects, the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant. Thus, under basal, fasting conditions and during ingestion of a mixed diet, the hyperinsulinemia of obesity results predominantly from increased insulin secretion. In patients with more marked basal hyperinsulinemia and during intense stimulation of insulin secretion, a reduction in insulin clearance may contribute to the greater increase in peripheral insulin concentrations that are characteristic of the obese state.+

Use of biosynthetic human C-peptide in the measurement of insulin secretion rates in normal volunteers and type I diabetic patients.

We undertook this study to examine the accuracy of plasma C-peptide as a marker of insulin secretion. The peripheral kinetics of biosynthetic human C-peptide (BHCP) were studied in 10 normal volunteers and 7 insulin-dependent diabetic patients. Each subject received intravenous bolus injections of BHCP as well as constant and variable rate infusions. After intravenous bolus injections the metabolic clearance rate of BHCP (3.8 +/- 0.1 ml/kg per min, mean +/- SEM) was not significantly different from the value obtained during its constant intravenous infusion (3.9 +/- 0.1 ml/kg per min). The metabolic clearance rate of C-peptide measured during steady state intravenous infusions was constant over a wide concentration range. During experiments in which BHCP was infused at a variable rate, the peripheral concentration of C-peptide did not change in proportion to the infusion rate. Thus, the infusion rate of BHCP could not be calculated accurately as the product of the C-peptide concentration and metabolic clearance rate. However, the non-steady infusion rate of BHCP could be accurately calculated from peripheral C-peptide concentrations using a two-compartment mathematical model when model parameters were derived from the C-peptide decay curve in each subject. Application of this model to predict constant infusions of C-peptide from peripheral C-peptide concentrations resulted in model generated estimates of the C-peptide infusion rate that were 101.5 +/- 3.4% and 100.4 +/- 2.8% of low and high dose rates, respectively. Estimates of the total quantity of C-peptide infused at a variable rate over 240 min based on the two-compartment model represented 104.6 +/- 2.4% of the amount actually infused. Application of this approach to clinical studies will allow the secretion rate of insulin to be estimated with considerable accuracy. The insulin secretion rate in normal subjects after an overnight fast was 89.1 pmol/min, which corresponds with a basal 24-h secretion of 18.6 U.

Diabetes Due to Secretion of an Abnormal Insulin

A 51-year-old, nonobese man with diabetes mellitus had marked hyperinsulinemia (70 to 120 muU per milliliter; 502 to 860 pmol per liter) and fasting hyperglycemia (140 to 170 mg per 100 ml; 7.8 to 9.4 mmol per liter). Plasma proinsulin, glucagon, growth hormone, and cortisol levels were normal; insulin antibodies and insulin-receptor antibodies were not detected. The patient showed relatively normal insulin sensitivity, and insulin receptors on circulating monocytes were within the normal range. Insulin from the patients serum bound to IM-9 lymphocytes and rat adipocytes approximately 40 per cent as well as insulin standards. Its biologic activity on rat adipocytes averaged 15 per cent of that expected from its immunologic concentration. The impaired biologic activity of this patients circulating insulin was probably due to a structural abnormality. Subsequent studies of the patients insulin (fortuitously obtained from his pancreas during a laparotomy for a pancreatic cyst) have confirmed this conclusion. (N Engl J Med 302:129-135, 1980).

Diabetes due to secretion of a structurally abnormal insulin (insulin Wakayama). Clinical and functional characteristics of [LeuA3] insulin.

We have identified a non-insulin-dependent diabetic patient with fasting hyperinsulinemia (90 microU/ml), an elevated insulin:C-peptide molar ratio (1.68; normal, 0.05-0.20), normal insulin counterregulatory hormone levels, and an adequate response to exogenously administered insulin. Insulin-binding antibodies were absent from serum, erythrocyte insulin receptor binding was normal, and greater than 90% of circulating immunoreactive insulin coeluted with 125I-labeled insulin on gel filtration. The patients insulin diluted in parallel with a human standard in the insulin radioimmunoassay, confirming close molecular similarity. The patients insulin was purified from serum and shown to possess both reduced binding and ability to stimulate glucose uptake and oxidation in vitro. Analysis of the patients insulin by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed two products: 7.3% of insulin immunoreactivity coeluted with the human standard, while the remaining 92.7% eluted as a single peak with increased hydrophobicity. Family studies confirmed the presence of hyperinsulinemia in four of five relatives in three generations, with secretion of an abnormal insulin documented by HPLC in the three tested. Leukocyte DNA was harvested from the propositus and the insulin gene cloned. One allele was normal, but the other displayed a thymine for guanine substitution at nucleotide position 1298 from the putative cap site, resulting in a leucine for valine substitution at position 3 of the insulin A chain. Insulin Wakayama is therefore identified as [LeuA3] insulin.

Biochemical and clinical implications of proinsulin conversion intermediates.

Since a complete map of insulin-related peptides in humans requires consideration of proinsulin, Arg32/Glu33-split proinsulin, Arg65/Gly66-split proinsulin, des-Arg31,Arg32-proinsulin, des-Lys64, Arg65-proinsulin, and insulin, we applied high performance liquid chromatography coupled with radioimmunoassay to investigate the formation of proinsulin conversion intermediates in vitro and in vivo. Kinetic analysis of proinsulin processing by a mixture of trypsin and carboxypeptidase B (to stimulate in vivo processes) revealed (a) a rapid decline in proinsulin concommitant with formation of conversion intermediates, (b) formation of des-Arg31, Arg32-proinsulin and des-Lys64,Arg65-proinsulin in the ratio 3.3:1 at steady state, and (c) complete conversion of the precursor to insulin during extended incubation. Studies on normal human pancreas identified a similar ratio of des-Arg31,Arg32-proinsulin to des-Lys64,Arg65-proinsulin (approximately 3:1), whereas two insulinomas contained sizable amounts of des-Arg31,Arg32-proinsulin, but barely detectable amounts of des-Lys64,Arg65-proinsulin. None of the tissues contained measurable quantities of Arg32/Glu33- or Arg65/Gly66-split proinsulin. Analysis of plasma from three diabetic subjects managed by the intravenous infusion of human proinsulin revealed less than 1% processing of the circulating precursor to conversion intermediates and no processing of the precursor to human insulin. Nevertheless, analysis of plasma from the same subjects managed by the subcutaneous infusion of proinsulin revealed 4-11% processing of the precursor to intermediates that had the properties of des-Arg31,Arg32-proinsulin and Arg65/Gly66-split proinsulin. We conclude that (a) processing of proinsulin to insulin in vivo as in vitro likely occurs by preferential cleavage at the Arg32-Glu33 peptide bond in proinsulin, (b) proinsulin is inefficiently processed in the vascular compartment, and (c) subcutaneous administration of the precursor can result in the formation of conversion intermediates with the potential for contributing to biological activity.

Proinsulin radioimmunoassay in the evaluation of insulinomas and familial hyperproinsulinemia

Two new radioimmunoassays for human proinsulin (hPI) have been developed and used to study patients with islet cell tumors and familial hyperproinsulinemia. Both antisera were adsorbed against human C-peptide conjugated to Sepharose, following which cross-reactivity to insulin and C-peptide was less than 0.001%. Antiserum 18D recognized the junction between the insulin B-chain and C-peptide and provided fivefold greater sensitivity than our previously reported hPI assay. Antiserum 11E recognized a determinant which includes or is adjacent to the A-chain-C-peptide junction or which is specified by the tertiary structure. In all 20 patients studied with surgically confirmed islet cell tumors, fasting plasma proinsulinlike material (PLM) was abnormal (greater than 3 SD from the mean measured in either lean or obese subjects) in both assays. This provided better discrimination than has been reported for PLM measured by gel filtration (abnormal in 13 of 14 of the present samples) with a considerably less laborious procedure. Samples from two families in which a mutant proinsulin is present in the circulation have immunoreactivity in the two assays consistent with previous identification of the molecule as an A-chain-C-peptide-linked intermediate of proinsulin conversion. The immunoreactivity of a sample from another family in which large amounts of proinsulin circulate are consistent with an intact molecule being the predominant form. This assay will be useful for confirming the diagnosis of insulin-secreting tumor in patients suspected of recurrent fasting hypoglycemia and in physiologic studies of proinsulin secretion.

Insulin Wakayama: familial mutant insulin syndrome in Japan

SummaryWe describe a family from Japan displaying the mutant insulin syndrome with hyperinsulinaemia and an increased insulin: C-peptide molar ratio. Serum insulin isolated from several family members showed reduced in vitro biological activity, and analysis by high performance liquid chromatography revealed a peak co-eluting with human insulin and a second species of increased hydrophobicity co-migrating with the previously reported Insulin Wakayama. The insulin genes from the propositus were cloned and sequenced, revealing one normal allele; the second allele, encoding a leucine for valine amino acid substitution at position 3 of the insulin A chain, was similar to that previously described for Insulin Wakayama. Synthesized [LeuA3] insulin showed 0.14% of receptor binding activity on rat adipocytes and a 10-fold prolonged half-life in a somatostatin-infused dog compared with human insulin. The finding of the same mutant gene in two unrelated Japanese families suggests that Insulin Wakayama may be discovered in additional Japanese families with hyperinsulinaemia and/or diabetes.

Change in Hexose Distribution Volume and Fractional Utilization of [18F]-2-Deoxy-2-Fluoro-D-Glucose in Brain During Acute Hypoglycemia in Humans

We used positron emission tomography (PET) to study the effects of mild hypoglycemia on cerebral glucose uptake and metabolism. Nine healthy men were studied under basal saline-infusion conditions, and during euglycemic and hypoglycemic clamp studies. Insulin was infused at the same rate (1 mU · kg−1 min−1) in both clamp studies. In euglycemic clamp studies, glucose was infused at a rate sufficient to maintain the basal plasma glucose concentration, whereas in hypoglycemic clamp studies, the glucose infusion rate was reduced to maintain the plasma glucose at 3.1 mM. Each study lasted 3 h and included a 30-min baseline period and a subsequent 150-min period in which insulin or glucose was administered. Blood samples for measurement of insulin, glucose, cortisol, growth hormone, and glucagon were obtained at 20- to 30-min intervals. A bolus injection of 5–10 mCi [18F]-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose (2-DFG) was administered 120 min after initiation of the study, and plasma radioactivity and dynamic PET scans were obtained at frequent intervals for the remaining 40–60 min of the study. Cerebral regions of interest were defined, and concentrations of radioactivity were calculated and used in the three-compartment model of 2-DFG distribution described by Sokoloff. Glucose levels were similar during saline-infusion (4.9 ± 0.1 mM) and euglycemic clamp (4.8 ± 0.1 mM) studies, whereas the desired degree of mild hypoglycemia was achieved during the hypoglycemic clamp study (3.1 ± 0.1 mM, P < 0.05). The insulin level during saline infusion was 41 ± 7 pM. During the euglycemic and hypoglycemic clamp studies, insulin concentrations were 455 ± 21 and 421 ± 21 pM, respectively. The ratio of the forward- and reverse-transport rate constants for hexose transport across the blood-brain barrier (i.e., k1/k2 or the hexose distribution volume) was greater during the hypoglycemic clamp study (1.48 ± 0.47 ml/g) than during the saline-infusion (0.45 ± 0.05 ml/g) or euglycemic clamp (0.54 ± 0.11 ml/g) studies. The fractional utilization rate for 2-DFG [i.e., k1 · k3/(k2 + k3)] was similarly greater during hypoglycemia (0.06 ± 0.02 ml · g−1 · min−1) than during saline-infusion (0.03 ± 0.01 ml · g−1 · min−1) or euglycemic clamp (0.04 ± 0.01 ml · g−1 · min−1) studies. The increased hexose distribution volume and cerebral fractional utilization of glucose resulted in the maintenance of the cerebral glucose metabolic rate during hypoglycemia (46 ± 12 (μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1); thus, the measured rate in this condition was similar to those found during the saline-infusion (36 ± 3 μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1) and euglycemic clamp (42 ± 12 μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1). studies. In conclusion, in the presence of mild hypoglycemia, the brain extracts an increased fraction of 2-DFG from the blood. The constant rate of cerebral glucose metabolism suggests that this enhanced glucose uptake protects the brain from acute reductions in plasma glucose.