Insulin Control of Glucose Metabolism in Man

Abstract

A B S T R A C T Analyses of the control of glucose metabolism by insulin have been hampered by changes in blood glucose concentration induced by insulin ad-ministration with resultant activation of hypoglycemic counterregulatory mechanisms. To eliminate such mecha-nisms, we have employed the glucose clamp technique which allows maintenance of fasting blood glucose con-centration during and after the administration of insu-lin. Analyses of six studies performed in young healthy men in the postabsorptive state utilizing the concurrent administration of [1'C]glucose and 1 mU/kg per min (40 mU/m' per min) porcine insulin led to the develop-ment of kinetic models for insulin and for glucose. These models account quantitatively for the control of insulin on glucose utilization and on endogenous glucose pro-duction during nonsteady states. The glucose model, a parallel three-compartment