Abstract
Two-tenths of a cc. of insulin were injected intravenously. Blood samples were withdrawn at frequent intervals, and sugar determinations were carried out on the whole blood.
The blood sugar decreases rapidly and at a uniform rate. The minimum sugar value is indicated at about 18 minutes after the injection. The sugar content of the blood then rises, at a slower rate, reaching the initial value within about one hour after the injection.
Peculiarities were observed in the reaction of overweight subjects. The insulin hypoglycemia is not as intense as in a lean subject of the same weight, and recovery from it seems slower. While this phenomenon apparently corroborates older views on the subject of “fat and glycogen antagonism”, it is being investigated further, and other experiments are being undertaken on the relationship between fat and glycogen formation.
It is suggested that the varying degrees of adiposity, as such, underlie the differences in the reaction to insulin of animals used in its assay.
The experiments were carried out, in part, under a grant' from the Heckscher Research Foundation.
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