Suppression of growth hormone release by glucose administration in diabetic individuals
Bieler, E.U.; Van Rooyen, R.J.; De Bruin, E.J.; Hoog, J.M.
South African Medical Journal 47(25): 1117-1119
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 4714709 Document Number: 63254
Six healthy nonobese students 19 to 21 years old, 5 patients with maturity-onset diabetes not requiring insulin, 5 patients 15 to 28 years old with stable diabetes treated with insulin, 3 adult patients from 24 to 39 and 4 from 11 to 19 years old with typical juvenile diabetes and on insulin treatment were given 100 g glucose by mouth. Fasting growth hormone (GH) values were for the normal subjects from 1.5 to 11.1 and for the diabetic patients from 0.6 to 19.5 ng/ml; blood GH was significantly higher in the patients with 'brittle' diabetes and in those with juvenile diabetes. Serum GH decreased in each person after the glucose load but in all the diabetic patients suppression of GH release occurred at significantly higher blood glucose values than in the normal subjects indicating that in diabetes intracellular glucose rather than blood glucose regulates GH secretion and that GH release is still under control of the pituitary.