The existence of an insulin-stimulated glucose and non-essential but not essential amino acid substrate interaction in diabetic pigs

Abstract

Background: The generation of energy from glucose is impaired in diabetes and can be compensated by other substrates like fatty acids (Randle cycle). Little information is available on amino acids (AA) as alternative energy-source in diabetes. To study the interaction between insulin-stimulated glucose and AA utilization in normal and diabetic subjects, intraportal hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic euaminoacidaemic clamp studies were performed in normal (n = 8) and streptozotocin (120 mg/kg) induced diabetic (n = 7) pigs of ∼40-45 kg. Results: Diabetic vs normal pigs showed basal hyperglycaemia (19.0 ± 2.0 vs 4.7 ± 0.1 mmol/L, P < .001) and at the level of individual AA, basal concentrations of valine and histidine were increased (P < .05) whereas tyrosine, alanine, asparagine, glutamine, glutamate, glycine and serine were decreased (P < .05) and tyrosine (P