In type 2 diabetes patients, insulin glargine is associated with lower postprandial release of intact proinsulin compared with sulfonylurea treatment

Abstract

Objective: Our objective was to investigate how postprandial processing of intact proinsulin is influenced by diferent pharmacological strategies in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials/Methods: This exploratory, nonrandomized, cross-sectional study recruited T2DM patients and healthy subjects. Upon recruitment, eligible T2DM patients had been treated for ?6 months with insulin glargine (GLA) plus metformin (MET), sulfonylureas (SU) plus MET, or dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4-I) plus MET. Blood samples were drawn from study participants after an 8 h fast and at regular intervals for up to 5 h after consumption of a standardized meal. Study endpoints included postprandial intact proinsulin and insulin levels and the insulin/proinsulin ratio. Results: As expected, postprandial secretion of proinsulin was greater in all T2DM treatment groups than in healthy subjects (p