Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

D Chevenne

Publications and source records attributed to D Chevenne.

44 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

[Somatomedins].

Somatomedins or insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are two polypeptides (IGF I and IGF II) whose structure shows great homology with proinsulin. Mostly synthetized by the liver but also by many tissues, they circulate in blood bound to specific binding proteins (IGFBPs). IGFBP3, a 120 to 150 kDa complex, carries over 95% of blood IGFs and its production is stimulated by growth hormone (hGH). On the contrary, IGFBP1, a 40 to 50 kDa protein, increases in case of hGH-deficiency. An IGFBP of 34 kDa, which is the major BP in cerebrospinal fluid but also present in blood, shows a great affinity for IGF II whereas the others BPs show similar affinities for both IGFs. Little is known about the other BP, IGFBP2. Two receptors can be found in most tissues: type 1, which binds IGFs and insulin, type 2, which binds IGF II preferentially to IGF I but not insulin. Type 1 IGF receptor has structural and enzymatic (phosphorylation of one of its own sub-units) similarities with the insulin receptor and mediates the action of IGF I. Type 2 receptor has an homology with the bovine cation-dependent mannose-6-phosphate receptor and has no known function. Liver production of IGF I is mainly under the control of hGH and other factors such as diet; other tissues are less or not at all under the control of hGH. The blood levels of IGF I raise from birth to the end of puberty, then decrease and remain almost stable during adulthood. The activity of IGF I on skeletal growth is well established and the determination of its plasma levels by radioimmunoassay is of great clinical utility in the diagnosis of growth disorders. IGF I levels in blood are high in case of acromegaly, low in hGH-deficiency, undernutrition, hypothyroidy and renal failure. IGF I acts in an autocrine/paracrine way and probably endocrine sometimes. How IGF II synthesis is regulated is not well known, in any case, IGF II has no effect on growth and the regulation of its secretion is hardly influenced by hGH, its blood levels remain unchanged in acromegaly and are irregularly diminished in hGH-deficiency. Moreover, IGF I and II promote cellular growth and differentiation. This activity could be of great importance during fetal life.

Animals↗

Protein A-sepharose used to measure free insulin in plasma.

Diabetic patients receiving insulin therapy generally develop anti-insulin antibodies that must be eliminated, usually by extraction with polyethylene glycol (PEG), before determining the concentration of free (active) insulin in plasma. We describe a new method for removing such antibodies, with the use of Protein A coupled to Sepharose microspheres. The results correlate well with those by the PEG method, although values are systematically higher or lower for given samples, according to the initial titer of the antibody measured in terms of binding capacity. Further studies are required to clarify this observation.

Adult↗

[Decrease of early insulin secretion, risk factor of insulin-dependent diabetes. Prospective study in families with diabetic children].

In order to study the capacity of the first phase insulin response (FPIR) for predicting insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM), we have performed one or more intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTT) and determined islet-cell antibodies (ICA) and HLA-types in 220 first degree relatives of IDDM patients (194 siblings, 26 offsprings) aged 2 to 29 years. They were prospectively followed for periods ranging from 18 months to 8 years. The immunological and metabolic changes in 9 subjects who have developed IDDM or impaired glucose tolerance during the study and in 3 ICA-positive non-diabetic subjects were compared to those in ICA-negative subjects. Although the mean FPIR (1 + 3 min. plasma insulin) was significantly lower in ICA-positive compared with ICA-negative subjects, a unique low FPIR had no predictive value at the individual level. At repeated tests, the two groups followed distinctive evolutive patterns: ICA-negative subjects usually had higher FPIRs at a 2nd test, while FPIRs remained low or still decreased in ICA-positive subjects. Follow-up of subjects at high risk showed good concordance between the different predictive factors: among the 9 subjects who have developed IDDM, 7 had persisting ICA, 8 were HLA-DR3, DR4; the FPIR was consistently low in 3 and low at least once in 4. Progressive loss of the FPIR allowing to predict the time of onset of IDDM, was not observed.

Adolescent↗

The contribution of intermediate-acting insulin preparations to daytime insulin treatment.

Hyperglycaemia in the afternoon is often not prevented by increasing the intermediate insulin dose in C-peptide deficient Type 1 diabetic patients, particularly children, treated with two injections of mixtures of short- and intermediate-acting insulins. To provide a better understanding of this, 19 Type 1 diabetic patients were studied using the euglycaemic clamp technique, after SC injection of either soluble, isophane (NPH) or lente insulin, or mixtures of these preparations. SC injection of 0.6 U kg-1 insulin, as either intermediate-acting (isophane (NPH) or lente) insulin alone or as a mixture of 50% soluble + 50% intermediate-acting insulins, indicates that, for the same total dose of SC insulin, a shift from soluble to intermediate-acting insulin results in a major loss of activity during the first 6 h after injection, with no compensatory increase over the next 6 h. The morning hypoglycaemic activity depends on different mechanisms with isophane (NPH) or lente insulin; the effects of soluble and isophane (NHP) insulin are superimposed, while with lente insulin, the peak of soluble insulin is blunted. For the afternoon, even large doses of isophane (NPH) or lente insulin do not meet the peak of insulin requirements following lunch.

Adult↗

[Recommendations for the standardization of growth hormone assays].

The diagnosis of growth hormone (GH) deficiency is based on the GH biological response to pharmacological stimulation tests. The cut-off value defining normality is the same whatever the GH assay used. In a group of the French Society for Clinical Biology (SFBC), we have evaluated whether differences between the GH concentrations obtained with the 9 commercial GH assays available in France exist or not. The study samples consisted of 72 serum pools and serial dilutions of the recombinant GH 22 kDa international standard, IS 98/574. These dilutions were performed by using 3 different diluents: the specific diluent provided by the manufacturers and thus different from one assay to another, serum without GH and heparin plasma without GH. Despite being calibrated against the same international standard, the different assays proposed variable conversion factors between microg and mIU, and we decided to express the results in mIU. The GH concentrations obtained for the 72 serum pools with the 9 assays were highly correlated, but absolute concentrations were significantly different from one assay to another. In particular, the ratio between the concentrations measured with both assays giving the lowest and highest concentration in the same sample respectively was about 50%. In the recovery test executed by adding the international standard, the slope of the regression curve describing the relationship between expected and measured concentrations was different of 1 in all but one assay. Furthermore, for a given assay and a given expected concentration, the measured values were sometimes different by up to 30% depending on the diluent used. These results led us to advise the manufacturers to calibrate their assays against the recombinant GH international standard, IS 98/574, to take into account the matrix effect detected in our study and to use the official conversion factor of 3 mIU/microg. Waiting for this new calibration, it is recommended that the results should be expressed in mIU/L and that serum samples should be used for the measurement of GH instead of plasma samples.

Blood Chemical Analysis↗