Effect of insulin on D-xylose disappearance in diabetic patients

¹ Clinical Endocrinology Branch, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

The effect of intravenous insulin on the rate of disappearance of d-xylose has been studied in two nondiabetics and five diabetic patients. Although insulin accelerated the disappearance rate of d-xylose in nondiabetics, it had no effect on blood levels of d-xylose in insulin-treated diabetic patients. This inability of insulin to increase the rate of disappearance of d-xylose was not related to hyperglycemia since no effect was observed in a diabetic patient at a time when her blood sugar concentration was normal. Diabetes per se was not responsible for this lack of effect since insulin did increase the rate of d-xylose disappearance in a diabetic patient who had never received insulin therapy. Since insulin caused a slower decline in the blood sugar of the insulin-treated diabetics than in the nondiabetics it is suggested that the rate at which insulin acts determines whether or not there will be an effect on d-xylose. In the insulin-treated diabetic, the presence of insulin antibodies could retard insulin action and account for the absence of an effect on d-xylose.