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Biomedical subjects

G R Faloona

Publications and source records attributed to G R Faloona.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1973

The effects of triglyceride absorption upon glucagon, insulin, and gut glucagon-like immunoreactivity.

The effects of a fat meal upon plasma insulin, glucagon, and glucagon-like immunoreactivity (GLI) have been studied in conscious dogs and in human volunteers. In dogs the intraduodenal instillation of 10 g/kg of peanut oil was accompanied by increases in the mean plasma levels of all three polypeptides that averaged 5 muU/ml, 107 pg/ml, and 2.1 ng/ml, respectively. 3 g/kg of peanut oil, when emulsified with egg yolk, elicited a much greater response of the three hormones, and a physiologic dose of 1 g/kg in emulsified form also caused a significant rise in glucagon and GLI. The islet cell hormone response was not ascribable to chylomicronemia since intravenous infusion of canine chyle failed to stimulate glucagon secretion; moreover, in dogs with a thoracic duct fistula in which chyle was excluded from the circulation, the intraduodenal administration of a fat meal elicited the normal islet cell hormone response, as well as a rise in GLI. 10 g/kg of medium-chain triglycerides failed to elicit these same responses. In six human volunteers the oral administration of 3 g/kg peanut oil was accompanied by increments of 2 muU/ml, 26 pg/ml, and 1.5 ng/ml in the mean levels of insulin, glucagon, and GLI. The changes in insulin and glucagon in man were neither statistically significant nor biologically impressive. It is concluded that in dogs fat absorption is accompanied by prompt and substantial increases in plasma glucagon and GLI and a small transient rise in insulin. The evidence favors an enterogenic signal to the islets of Langerhans rather than their stimulation by chylomicrons. Pancreozymin is qualified to serve as such a signal. The physiologic implications of this study are considered.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

The effect of calcium and other salts upon the release of glucagon-like immunoreactivity from the gut.

It has been suggested that glucagon-like immunoreactivity (GLI) of gastrointestinal tissues might, like pancreatic glucagon, have calcium-lowering activity. Studies were designed, therefore, to determine if calcium absorption was associated with GLI release from the gut. The intraduodenal administration of 4.5 mmoles of calcium chloride per kg of body weight to conscious dogs was associated with a prompt rise in plasma GLI from a base line of 2.2 ng/ml (SEM +/-0.2) to a peak of 4.3 ng/ml (SEM +/-0.3) at 45 and 60 min, in association with a rise of plasma calcium from 8.6 to 10.4 mg/100 ml. Neither pancreatic glucagon, insulin, nor glucose changed. Smaller calcium loads had progressively diminishing effects on GLI release. Calcium lactate also appeared to stimulate effectively GLI release. Both magnesium chloride and sodium chloride given intraduodenally were associated with a significant though modest increase in GLI. To determine if stimulation of GLI release by substances other than calcium would lower serum calcium, glucose was administered intraduodenally. Despite a marked increase in GLI, plasma calcium fell only 9%, a decline which could be entirely accounted for by hemodilution. Although the physiologic significance of this demonstration that the absorption of calcium salts is associated with GLI release is open to serious question, the findings are not incompatible with the concept that glucagon-like polypeptides are released from the gut during the absorption of certain salts, possibly to alert appropriate homeostatic regulators so as to avoid major changes in electrolyte concentration after the ingestion of large salt loads.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

Suppressive effect of secretin upon pancreatic alpha cell function.

Highly purified secretin, infused endoportally in five conscious mongrel dogs at a rate of 10 clinical units per min for 20 min, caused a prompt and statistically significant reduction in the pancreaticoduodenal vein level of pancreatic glucagon from a control average of 1130 pg/ml (SEM+/-312) to a nadir of 492 pg/ml (SEM+/-194) 15 min later (P < 0.01). During modest hyperglycemia of about 130 mg/100 ml, induced by glucose infusion, the infusion of secretin at the same rate elicited even more dramatic suppression of pancreaticoduodenal glucagon levels to virtually unmeasurable concentrations. At a lower rate of infusion (5 U priming injection followed by 1 U/min for 20 min) significant suppression of glucagon secretion during hyperglycemia was also observed. Stimulation of endogenous secretin release by the intraduodenal administration of 14 mEq of HCl in 10 dogs during intravenous glucose infusion was followed by a decline in pancreaticoduodenal vein glucagon from 130 pg/ml (SEM+/-34) to a nadir of 99 pg/ml (SEM+/-32) 5 min later (P < 0.05). The infusion of secretin at a rate of 10 U/min in alloxan-diabetic dogs was associated with a significant decline in peripheral venous plasma glucagon, from a mean preinfusion level of 272 pg/ml (SEM+/-39) to a nadir of 128 pg/ml (SEM+/-22) (P < 0.01). It was concluded that exogenous secretin in the doses employed in this study is a potent suppressor of glucagon secretion, particularly during hyperglycemia. HCl-stimulated endogenous secretin also suppresses glucagon secretion. The ability of secretin to augment the glucagon-suppressing effect of ingested glucose qualifies it uniquely for a physiologic role as a modifier of the islet cell response to ingested glucose. The fact that it lowers the hyperglucagonemia of alloxan-diabetic dogs suggests that its glucagon-suppressing activity may not be insulin dependent.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

Glucagon-stimulating activity of 20 amino acids in dogs.

The effect of 20 L-amino acids upon pancreatic glucagon secretion has been studied in conscious dogs. Each amino acid was administered intravenously over a 15 min period in a dose of 1 mmole/kg of body weight to a group of four or five dogs. Pancreatic glucagon and insulin were measured by radioimmunoassay. 17 of the 20 amino acids caused a substantial increase in plasma glucagon. Asparagine had the most glucagon-stimulating activity (GSA), followed by glycine, phenylalanine, serine, aspartate, cysteine, tryptophan, alanine, glutamate, threonine, glutamine, arginine, ornithine, proline, methionine, lysine, and histidine. Only valine, leucine, and isoleucine failed to stimulate glucagon secretion, and isoleucine may have reduced it. No relationship between glucagon-stimulating activity and insulin-stimulating activity was observed. The amino acids which enter the gluconeogenic pathway as pyruvate and, which are believed to provide most of the amino acid-derived glucose, had a significantly greater GSA than the amino acids which enter as succinyl CoA or as alpha-ketoglutarate. However, pyruvate itself did not stimulate glucagon secretion. The R-chain structure of the amino acid did not appear to be related to its GSA, except that the aliphatic branched chain amino acids, valine, leucine, and isoleucine, were devoid of GSA.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1972

Studies of the development of diabetic ketosis in the rat.

Plasma glucose, free fatty acid, ketone, and triglyceride concentrations were measured at frequent intervals after the administration of alloxan to rats. Hepatic triglyceride levels were determined in the same animals. During the second 24-hr period after alloxan administration, severe ketoacidosis developed and triglyceride concentrations in the liver became markedly elevated. This finding was incompatible with the thesis that enhanced ketogenesis under circumstances of increased free fatty acid delivery to the liver requires diminished triglyceride synthesis. Plasma insulin and glucagon concentrations were determined at each time point. Initial changes in plasma glucose, ketones, free fatty acids, and triglycerides were accompanied by a fall in insulin concentrations, but no change occurred in glucagon levels. However, concentrations of the latter hormone increased dramatically in the second 24 hr after alloxan treatment and probably contributed to the development of the extreme hyperglycemia observed during this time period.

Acetates↗
PubMed1971

The glycogenolytic activity of immunoreactive pancreatic glucagon in plasma.

Conclusions concerning the physiologic role of pancreatic glucagon in health and its contribution to disorders of carbohydrate metabolism, such as diabetes mellitus, are based entirely on measurements of plasma glucagon by radioimmunoassay. The changes in plasma immunoreactive glucagon can have the metabolic and clinical significance which has been implied, only if the glucagon detected by immunoassay has biological activity. The present study was designed to determine if a relationship between the immunoassayable glucagon and glycogenolytic activity of plasma could be demonstrated. Plasma specimens obtained from normal and diabetic subjects under widely varying circumstances of alpha cell activity were extracted by a modification of the Kenny technique and the recovery of immunoreactive glucagon was calculated. Glycogenolytic activity of each extract was determined by perfusion in the Mortimore rat liver system, modified so as to detect as little as 1 ng of crystalline glucagon.A significant correlation between the calculated quantity of immunoreactive glucagon and the glycogenolytic activity of plasma extracts was observed for both normal and diabetic subjects. Most of the glycogenolytic activity was abolished by incubating the extract with antiglucagon serum. It was concluded that the glycogenolytic activity of extractable glucagon is proportional to its immunoreactivity as calculated from its original concentration in plasma. This would tend to support the view that all or most of the immunoreactive glucagon of plasma is biologically active.

Animals↗
PubMed1971

The effect of experimental insulin deficiency on glucagon secretion.

Suppression of pancreatic glucagon secretion by hyperglycemia is a characteristic of normal alpha cell function. However, in diabetic subjects, plasma glucagon is normal or high despite hyperglycemia. It seemed possible that the presence of glucose or its metabolites within the alpha cell might be essential for suppression of glucagon secretion, and that in diabetes an intracellular deficiency of glucose secondary to insulin lack might be responsible for the nonsuppressibility. The present study was designed to determine the effect upon glucagon secretion of blockade of glucose metabolism and of experimental insulin deficiency. Blockade of glucose metabolism was induced in dogs by administration of 2-deoxyglucose or mannoheptulose. A striking rise in glucagon was observed despite accompanying hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, which, in the case of mannoheptulose, was induced by infusing crystalline insulin. To determine if insulin lack also causes paradoxical hyperglucagonemia, dogs were made severely diabetic by alloxan. Fasting glucagon levels ranged from 3 to 22 times normal despite severe hyperglycemia, and were quickly restored to normal by infusing insulin. Diabetes induced in rats by anti-insulin serum was also associated with significant elevation in plasma glucagon. However, diazoxide-induced insulin lack did not increase glucagon in dogs. It is concluded that normal suppression of glucagon secretion by hyperglycemia does not occur when glucose metabolism is blocked or when severe insulin deficiency is produced. It is suggested that normal glucose metabolism within the alpha cell may be an insulin-requiring process without which hyperglycemic suppression of glucagon release cannot occur.

Animals↗
PubMed1971

The effect of alanine on glucagon secretion.

If glucagon plays a hormonal role in the regulation of gluconeogenesis from endogenous amino acids, its secretion might be stimulated by an increase in the concentration of alanine, which has recently been identified as a principal gluconeogenic precursor. To determine if this is the case, 0.75 mmole of alanine per kilo was infused into conscious dogs immediately after a priming injection of 0.25 mmole per kg for 15 min. A uniform rise in the plasma level of pancreatic glucagon, as determined by a relatively specific radioimmunoassay for pancreatic glucagon, was observed. The rise, which averaged 90 pg per ml, was highly significant at 7(1/2) and 15 min after the start of the infusion. Insulin rose an average of only 8 muU per ml, while glucose rose an average of 10 mg per 100 ml. A lower dose of alanine, 1 mmole per kg, infused over a 1 hr period without an initial priming injection, also elicited a significant rise in glucagon measured in the pancreaticoduodenal venous plasma; glucagon rose from 350 pg per ml to 1066 pg per ml at the end of the infusion. The insulin response was modest and inconsistent, and glucose, again, rose 10 mg per 100 ml. To determine if the availability of exogenous glucose would abolish the alanine-induced rise in glucagon secretion, dogs were made hyperglycemic by a constant intravenous glucose infusion and were then given the high-dose alanine infusion. Under these circumstances, glucagon did not rise above the mean fasting concentration of 75 pg per ml, whereas mean insulin rose dramatically by more than 100 muU per ml. It was concluded that, in the fasting state, alanine does stimulate the secretion of glucagon, while having very little stimulatory effect on insulin secretion. Glucagon could, therefore, be a humoral mediator of gluconeogenesis from endogenous alanine, responding to hyperalaninemia in the fasting state, but not when exogenous glucose is available.

Alanine↗