Extraction of insulin by the liver after administration of glucose in the duodenum has been studied in fourteen anesthetized dogs. Plasma insulin and glucose were measured in the portal vein hepatic vein and hepatic artery. During the control period 40+/-3% of the approximately 11 mU of insulin presented to the liver/min was removed during a single transhepatic passage. Within 5 min after glucose administration, the amount of insulin reaching the liver increased significantly. In some animals this increase preceded any significant increase in the glucose concentration of the femoral artery. After glucose administration, hepatic extraction of insulin remained unchanged in five animals and rose significantly in nine. In five of the latter animals, the increase may have been more apparent than real due to nonrepresentative sampling of hepatic venous blood. However, for the whole group of animals, comparison of arterial insulin levels with the amount of insulin delivered to the liver suggested a transient increase in insulin extraction between 5 and 50 min after glucose administration. In no animal was there a decrease in the proportion of insulin extracted by the liver after glucose administration. The results indicate that the extraction process is not saturable at physiological insulin levels. Prior to glucose administration, net hepatic glucose output averaged between 30 and 40 mg/min. After glucose administration, the liver began to take up glucose and there was a significant correlation between hepatic glucose uptake and the amount of insulin reaching the liver. However, since the amount of glucose presented to the liver also increased, it is not established that the insulin was responsible for the change in hepatic carbohydrate metabolism. The data demonstrate an increase in the absolute amount of insulin extracted by the liver after glucose administration and an important role for the liver in regulating peripheral insulin concentrations.

Animals↗

PubMed1973

Demonstration of iodide transport defect but normal iodide organification in nonfunctioning nodules of human thyroid glands.

Benign and malignant nodules in human thyroid glands, which did not concentrate iodide in vivo, were also unable to accumulate iodide in vitro. The mean thyroid-to-medium ratio (T/M) in seven benign nodules was 0.8+/-0.2 compared with 7+/-2 in adjacent normal thyroid tissue. In four malignant thyroid nodules, the mean T/M was 0.5+/-0.1 compared with 11+/-4 in adjacent normal thyroid. Despite the inability of such nodules to concentrate iodide, iodide organification was present but was only one-half to one-third as active as in surrounding normal thyroid. Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) increased iodide organification equally in both benign nodules and normal thyroid although it had no effect in three of the four malignant lesions. The reduction in organification is probably related to the absence of iodide transport, since incubation of normal thyroid slices with perchlorate caused similar diminution in iodide incorporation but no change in the response to TSH. Monoiodotyrosine (MIT) and di-iodotyrosine (DIT) accounted for most of the organic iodide in both the nodules and normal tissue. The MIT/DIT ratio was similar in normal and nodule tissue. The normal tissue contained much more inorganic iodide than the nodules, consistent with the absence of the iodide trap in the latter tissue. The thyroxine content of normal thyroid was 149+/-17 mug/g wet wt and 18+/-4 mug/g wet wt in the nodules. The transport defect in the nodules was not associated with any reduction in total, Na(+)-K(+)- or Mg(++)-activated ATPase activities or the concentration of ATP. Basal adenylate cyclase was higher in nodules than normal tissue. Although there was no difference between benign and malignant nodules, the response of adenylate cyclase to TSH was greater in the benign lesions. These studies demonstrate that nonfunctioning thyroid nodules, both benign and malignant, have a specific defect in iodide transport that accounts for their failure to accumulate radioactive iodide in vivo. In benign nodules, iodide organification was increased by TSH while no such effect was found in three of four malignant lesions, suggesting additional biochemical defects in thyroid carcinomas.

Adenoma↗

PubMed1973