Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 79, Issue 1 97-101, Copyright © 1995 by American Physiological Society
Truncal vagotomy does not affect postabsorptive glucose metabolism in humans
E. P. Corssmit, J. J. Van Lanschot, J. A. Romijn, E. Endert and H. P. Sauerwein
Department of Endocrinology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
To evaluate the effects of hepatic vagal denervation on the adaptation of
glucose metabolism to short-term starvation (i.e., < 24 h), glucose
metabolism was studied after 16 and again after 22 h of fasting in
postsurgical patients with truncal vagotomy (n = 9; radical resection of
esophageal carcinoma) and without truncal vagotomy (n = 5; partial
resection of the large bowel for carcinoma). Glucose metabolism was studied
3-7.5 mo postoperatively by [3-3H]glucose turnover and by indirect
calorimetry. Basal glucose production, plasma glucose concentration,
glucose oxidation, serum free fatty acid concentration, and fat oxidation
were not different between groups; neither were plasma concentrations of
glucoregulatory hormones. The adaptation to prolongation of the fast by 6 h
was not different for any of these parameters between both groups. In
conclusion, truncal vagotomy does not affect the adaptation of glucose
metabolism to the postabsorptive state (16-22 h of fasting).
