title: Pancreatic beta-cell function evaluated by intravenous glucose and glucagon stimulation. A comparison between insulin and C-peptide to measure insulin secretion.
abstract: Insulin and C-peptide responses to 0.5 g kg-1 intravenous glucose and 1.0 mg glucagon were studied in 34 healthy subjects (age 19-78 years, mean 45). Fasting blood glucose (r = 0.59; p < 0.001) and glycosylated haemoglobin (r = 0.61; p < 0.001) increased with age, but not the initial C-peptide and insulin responses to the glucose infusion. However, the C-peptide response at 70 min (r = 0.36; p < 0.05), 80 min (r = 0.41; p < 0.05), and 90 min (r = 0.46; p < 0.01) after the glucose infusion correlated with age as well as both insulin (r = 0.42; p < 0.05) and C-peptide (r = 0.45; p < 0.05) responses to the glucagon injection. Reproducibility of insulin and C-peptide responses was evaluated by duplicate tests, separated 2-143 days in time, in 10 healthy subjects (age 19-48 years, mean 32 years) showing no significant differences in median within-subject variation between the initial (1 + 3 min) or overall (0-90 min area under curve) insulin (24% and 17%, respectively) and C-peptide (15% and 14%, respectively) responses to glucose, while the within-subject variation for the fasting values and the response to glucagon was higher (p < 0.05) for insulin (47% and 32%, respectively) than C-peptide (13% and 14%, respectively). Between-subject variation was also lower (p < 0.001) for C-peptide than for insulin. Thus, C-peptide measurements in healthy subjects are more reproducible than insulin measurements in determination of beta-cell function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Lund, Malmö General Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gottsäter
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Landin-Olsson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fernlund
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gullberg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lernmark
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sundkvist
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002096:C-Peptide / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005934:Glucagon / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005947:Glucose / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood*; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D002096:C-Peptide; D005934:Glucagon; D005947:Glucose; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D007328:Insulin