The effect of coingestion of fat on the glucose, insulin, and gastric inhibitory polypeptide responses to carbohydrate and protein

In the present study we examined the effect of coingestion of 50 g fat (butter) on the postprandial glucose, insulin, and gastric inhibitory polypeptide responses to 50 g carbohydrate (potato) or 50 g protein (low fat veal) in eight normal subjects. The coingestion of fat with either carbohydrate or protein resulted in greatly increased gastric inhibitory polypeptide responses, the effect being more pronounced with carbohydrate. The addition of fat to a carbohydrate meal also reduced the postprandial glucose response. This could have been due to several factors including a delayed glucose absorption, secondary to a fat-induced inhibition of gastric emptying. However, despite the lower blood glucose levels in the presence of fat the insulin response was not reduced, suggesting a potentiation of insulin secretion in the presence of fat. Thus, despite the apparent improvement in glucose tolerance when carbohydrate is ingested together with fat, the accompanying potentiation of insulin secretion could form the basis of long-term changes in insulin sensitivity which accompany alterations in dietary fat intake.

Metabolic adaptation to a low carbohydrate-high protein ('traditional') diet in Australian Aborigines

We have investigated plasma glucose and insulin responses to 75 g glucose in 12 young, full-blood Aborigines before and after 2 weeks on a diet derived almost exclusively from seafood. This diet was low in fat, extremely low in carbohydrate and high in protein and was representative of the diet consumed by these people in their traditional lifestyle during those times of the year when very little vegetable food was available. After an initial weight loss which was probably due to glycogen, salt and water losses associated with the dietary change, body weights stabilised by the end of the first week. Total triglyceride concentrations in fasting plasma fell from 1.32 +/- 0.33 before the diet to 0.61 +/- 0.08 mmol/l after it, while total cholesterol, which was low initially, did not fall significantly. There was a small but significant improvement in glucose tolerance and a small reduction in insulin response indicating that the Aborigines had adapted effectively to the very low carbohydrate-high protein diet in the 2 week period. The insulin response to 50 g protein also fell significantly after the seafood diet. The results suggest that glucose tolerance is not determined solely by the carbohydrate content of the diet, but rather by the availability of carbohydrate either directly or indirectly in precursor form as dietary protein.

Increased proportion of arachidonic acid in plasma lipids after 2 weeks on a diet of tropical seafood

Using capillary GLC we analyzed the plasma fatty acids in a group of full-blood Aborigines in north western Australia before and after 2 wk on a diet in which over 90% of the energy was derived from tropical fish and shellfish. The proportion of saturated fatty acids did not change and all monoenoic and omega 6 fatty acids, except arachidonic, fell significantly. The proportions of arachidonic and all omega 3 PUFA rose significantly on the diet. This striking rise in arachidonic was evident in all lipid fractions (phospholipids, cholesterol esters, and triglycerides). Total triglycerides in fasting plasma fell from 1.32 to 0.61 mM after the diet while total cholesterol, which was low initially, did not fall significantly. Analysis of the fatty acids in lipid extracts from the tropical seafood eaten in the study revealed an arachidonic acid content ranging from 4.8 to 14.3% of the total fatty acids. The seafood contained almost no linoleic acid but was, as expected, a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids (13.6 to 31.0% of the total fatty acids). From these data we are able to conclude that seafood from tropical waters, unlike seafood from colder waters, is a natural source of polyunsaturated fatty acids from both the omega 6 and omega 3 series.

Noradrenaline turnover during under- and over-eating in normal weight subjects

Adjustments to sympathetic nervous system activity may regulate constant body weight despite wide variations in energy intake. To test this six normal weight subjects were studied at three different energy intakes (low, weight maintaining and high). Noradrenaline turnover was measured on the tenth day of each diet. Both noradrenaline appearance rate and noradrenaline clearance increased significantly with increasing energy intake and were a more sensitive indices than the plasma noradrenaline concentrations which rose, but not significantly. Fasting triiodothyronine (T3) rose and reverse T3 fell with increasing energy intake, while thyroxine (T4) concentrations did not change. Systolic blood pressure also rose significantly. Underfeeding resulted in reductions in noradrenaline appearance and clearance rates and in the T3 level. These results demonstrate that sympathetic nervous system activity, as determined by noradrenaline turnover in plasma, varies in response to short-term changes in energy intake in normal weight subjects. These changes may partly explain why some individuals maintain body weight constant despite large differences in food intake. The present findings may also be relevant to the variability in susceptibility to become obese.

Effect of physical form of carbohydrate on the postprandial glucose, insulin, and gastric inhibitory polypeptide responses in type 2 diabetes

In the present study we measured the postprandial glucose, insulin, and gastric inhibitory polypeptide responses to 75 g carbohydrate administered either as glucose, unpolished (brown) rice, or ground brown rice to six recently diagnosed type 2 diabetics and six healthy subjects. The diabetic and normal subjects responded in a qualitatively similar manner to the three meals although there were major quantitative differences. Brown rice elicited significantly lower postprandial glucose, insulin, and gastric inhibitory polypeptide responses than either ground brown rice or glucose in both groups. There were no significant differences in the metabolic responses to ground brown rice (complex carbohydrate) and glucose (simple carbohydrate) in either diabetic or normal subjects. These data highlight the role of the physical form of complex carbohydrate in determining metabolic responses to it in both diabetic and normal subjects, and provide a rationale for designing diabetic diets containing complex carbohydrate in a form which is slowly digested and absorbed.

Impact of Westernization on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in Australian Aborigines

We have investigated plasma glucose and immunoreactive insulin responses to 75-g oral glucose in lean, young, full-blood Aboriginal men from urban and rural communities and made comparisons with age- and weight-matched Caucasoids. Fasting glucose concentrations were lower in the rural Aborigines than in the urban Aborigines or the Caucasoids. Plasma glucose concentrations 2 h postprandially were significantly higher in both Aboriginal groups (urban 6.7 +/- 0.6 mmol/l, rural 6.4 +/- 0.4 mmol/l) than in the Caucasoids (5.0 +/- 0.3 mmol/l). Insulin responses in the two Aboriginal groups were almost identical and 50% higher than in the Caucasoids. We also investigated glucose tolerance and plasma lipids in 67 full-blood Aborigines living in an isolated rural community. Only three people (two men and one woman) had diabetes while a further eight (six men and two women) had impaired glucose tolerance. Fasting plasma cholesterol concentrations did not increase with age and were significantly lower in the rural Aboriginal community than in either the urban Aborigines or the Caucasoids. These results suggest that elevations in fasting cholesterol and glucose concentrations are lifestyle-associated, but that mild impairment of glucose tolerance and high insulin response in the Aborigines may be inherited metabolic characteristics.

Biochemical quantification of sympathetic nervous activity in humans using radiotracer methodology: fallibility of plasma noradrenaline measurements

We have developed radiotracer techniques for studying noradrenaline kinetics, to assess better sympathetic nervous system function in humans. Tritiated l-noradrenaline was infused intravenously (0.35 microCi/m2/min) to plateau plasma concentration. Noradrenaline plasma clearance was calculated from plasma tritiated noradrenaline concentration at steady state, and the rate of spillover of noradrenaline to plasma derived from plasma noradrenaline specific radioactivity. Mean noradrenaline spillover at rest in 34 normal subjects was 0.33 micrograms/m2/min (range 0.17-0.61 micrograms/m2/min). Predictably, noradrenaline spillover was reduced in patients with subnormal sympathetic nervous system activity, 0.16 +/- 0.09 micrograms/m2/min in eight patients with idiopathic peripheral autonomic insufficiency, and 0.11 +/- 0.07 micrograms/m2/min (mean +/- SD) in six patients with essential hypertension treated with clonidine (0.45 mg daily). Noradrenaline line plasma clearance in normal subjects was 1.32 +/- 0.28 L/m2/min. Clearance fell with age, causing the previously described rise in plasma noradrenaline concentration with aging. Unexpected effects of drugs were encountered, for example chronic beta-adrenergic blockade in patients with essential hypertension reduced noradrenaline clearance. Plasma noradrenaline concentration measurements were not in agreement with noradrenaline release rate values, and do not reliably indicate sympathetic nervous system activity, in instances such as these where noradrenaline clearance is abnormal.

Factors affecting the rate of hydrolysis of starch in food

After accurate determination of the content of available carbohydrate in a wide variety of cereals, as in vitro method was used to study factors that influence hydrolysis rates of starch in foods. Fiber, physical form, cooking, and the possible presence of a natural amylase inhibitor were all shown to affect hydrolysis rates of starch. Fiber only exerted an inhibiting effect on the rate of hydrolysis when it formed a physical barrier to limit access of the hydrolytic enzymes to the starch (as in whole brown rice, for example). Particle size played an important role in determining the rate of hydrolysis. Cooking made the starch much more readily available for enzymic hydrolysis presumably by gelatinizing it. Stoneground wholemeal flour was hydrolyzed more slowly than white flour. This is consistent with the presence of a natural amylase inhibitor that has been isolated from wheat germ in the whole grain. Our results suggest that such amylase inhibitor activity is destroyed by passage through the roller mill, since the starch in wheat germ and standard wholemeal flour (i.e., not stoneground but reconstituted after passage through the roller mill) was hydrolyzed at a rate identical to white flour.

Rate of starch hydrolysis in vitro as a predictor of metabolic responses to complex carbohydrate in vivo

This study was designed to determine whether the rate of hydrolysis of different starches by pancreatic amylase in vitro was proportional to the postprandial glucose and insulin response to those starches after oral ingestion. Lean young men consumed four test meals of rice containing 75 g starch: white rice, unpolished (brown) rice, ground white rice, and ground brown rice. Postprandial glucose and insulin responses were measured over 4 h and showed the following pattern: ground white rice congruent to ground brown rice greater than white rice greater than brown rice. The maximum increases in blood glucose after the four meals were brown rice 0.9 mM, white rice 1.5 mM, ground brown rice 3.3 mM, and ground white rice 3.6 mM. Samples of the cooked rices were incubated in vitro with pancreatic amylase for 30 min and the percentage starch hydrolysis determine. The relative rates of starch hydrolysis correlated very closely with the peak glucose responses: brown rice 17.6%, white rice 30.8%, ground brown rice 68.2% and ground white rice 71.8%. These results indicated that the rate of intestinal hydrolysis of starch is an extremely important determinant of the metabolic responses to a particular starch. The rate of starch hydrolysis can be determine simply by an in vitro method and should assist the design of diets for the treatment of diabetes.

Studies on nonoxynol-9. III. Effect on fibroblasts and spermatozoa

Seven nonionic detergents of the Igepal CO series differing in molecular size and including nonoxynol-9 and a representative anionic (SDS) and cationic (Cepacol) detergent were tested as to their relative cytotoxicity. The biologic effects of these detergents on human W1--38 fibroblasts (DNA and glycosaminoglycans synthesis) and on the motility of human spermatozoa were studied. The relative order of cytotoxicities for both fibroblasts and spermatozoa was cationic greater than nonionic greater than anionic. The concentration of nonoxynol-9-inhibiting fibroblast activity was approximately 30 times less than the amount needed to immobilize spermatozoa. It is concluded that CO-630, used as a source of nonoxynol-9, is the most effective polymer to inhibit spermatozoa and also fibroblasts.

The mechanism of adaptive hyperlipogenesis: insulin receptor binding and glucokinase activity in rat liver during fasting and refeeding

In the present study, rats were fasted for 3 days and subsequently refed for 1, 3, or 5 days. Measurements of insulin binding to its receptors on liver plasma membranes were carried out in conjunction with measurements of the activity of an insulin-regulated enzyme from liver cytosol, glucokinase. In response to the 3-day fast (chronic hypoinsulinemia), the insulin receptor number almost tripled, whereas the glucokinase activity was halved. The insulin receptor number slowly fell to control values during the 5 days of refeeding. In contrast, glucokinase activity rose to levels 2.5 times higher than control (5 times higher than the fasting values) after 1 day of refeeding. Altough the activity fell off somewhat during refeeding it was still dobule control values after 5 days refeeding. It was concluded that in the fasted rat there was a dissociation between insulin receptor concentration and the activity of the insulin-regulated enzyme glucokinase. However, the fasting-induced increase in receptor concentration appeared to play a permissive role in the rapid overshoot of glucokinase activity observed in the early stages of refeeding. Such a scheme would explain the metabolic changes occurring in the fasted-refed rat.

The effect of transition from traditional to urban life-style on the insulin secretory response in Australian Aborigines

Recent epidemiologic studies have revealed a high prevalence of maturity-onset diabetes in certain populations that have undergone comparatively rapid urbanization. There is evidence suggesting that Australian Aborigines may respond to urbanization in this way. Thirteen full-blood Aborigines from the Mowanjum Community, Derby, Western Australia, cooperated in the present study. They spent 3 mo living in their traditional hunter-gatherer life-style, after which their insulin response to glucose was measured in a starch tolerance test. The findings were compared in follow-up studies conducted 3 mo after returning to their urban environment. Similar studies were conducted in Caucasians of comparable age and weight. Fasting glucose concentrations were lower in Aborigines than in Caucasians and were unaffected by life-style changes. Although basal insulin levels were similar in the three groups, there were striking intergroup differences in the insulin responses to glucose. The areas under the insulin curves in the first hour after starch ingestion were: urban Aborigines 4478 +/- 465 microU/ml-1/min, traditional Aborigines 2959 +/- 301 microU/ml-1/min, and Caucasians 2097 +/- 224 microU/ml-1/min. This appeared to reflect differences in the early rates of change of glucose concentrations. The data suggest that these Aborigines have an abnormally high insulin response to glucose, which is ameliorated, but not normalized, by reverting to their traditional life-style.

Effects of fasting and refeeding on the in vitro insulin sensitivity of rat aorta

Rat aorta responds to refeeding after a fast in a manner similar to adopose tissue and liver by developing an enhanced capacity for lipogenesis and glycogen synthesis from glucose. The in vitro incorporation of D-U-14C-glucose into aortic triglycerides and glycogen was two- to four-fold higher in rats refed for three to five days after a three day fast than in ad libitum fed controls. Insulin significantly stimulated this incorporation only during refeeding for three days after a three-day fast. The glycogen synthesizing system appeared to be stimulated and to become sensitive to insulin earlier in the refeeding process than did the lipogenic system. The in vitro incorporation of 14C-glucose into aortic phospholipids was less affected by the nutritional state of the animal, and was not stimulated by insulin at any stage of the experiment. Possible mechanisms for the development of insulin supersensitivity and the implications for lipid accumulation in the artery wall are discussed.

Development of insulin sensitivity in rat aorta after chronic propranolol treatment

Spontaneously hypertensive rats and normotensive Kyoto Wistar controls were divided into 3 groups of 10 animals each and treated with phenoxybenzamine (5 mg/kg once daily), propranolol (25 mg/kg twice daily) or saline (once daily). After 5 weeks the in vitro incorporation of D-[U-14C]-glucose into aortic lipids and glycogen was measured in the presence and absence of insulin (1 mU/ml). In both normotensive and hypertensive rats treated with propranolol 14C-incorporation into triglycerides was reduced. Furthermore, insulin significantly stimulated 14C-incorporation into triglycerides, phospholipids and glycogen in propranolol-treated hypertensive rats. This effect was not statistically significant (0.05 less than p less than 0.1) in propranolol-treated normotensives. Phenoxybenzamine treatment did not significantly modify aortic lipogenesis or glycogen synthesis from glucose. Chronic propranolol treatment of spontaneously hypertensive rats resulted in aortic tissue becoming sensitized to insulin. Possible mechanisms and explanations for this are discussed.

Effect of caloric restriction on basal insulin levels and the in vivo lipogenesis and glycogen synthesis from glucose in the Koletsky obese rat

Fasting plasma immunoreactive insulin levels increased with age in hyperinsulinemic Koletsky obese rats, being almost four times as high as in lean siblings at 3 mo (40 +/- 5 muU/ml) and rising steadily to 82 +/- 4 muU/ml at 6 mo (about seven times higher than lean siblings). Restricting the food intake of the obese rats markedly reduced but did not normalize the hyperinsulinemia, which in these rats was accompanied by normal plasma glucose concentrations. The incorporation in vivo of D-U-14C-glucose into tissue lipids and glycogen was measured 1 hr after the intravenous injection of 1 g glucose (containing 100 muDi D-U-14C-glucose) per kg body weight in obese rats eating ad libitum, obese rats after 3 mo on a restricted food intake, and lean siblings. All tissues (heart, diaphragm, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissues and liver) of obese rats exhibited a significantly greater lipogenesis from glucose than those of lean siblings. Dietary restriction of the obese rats reduced the 14C incorporation into lipid to levels not significantly different from lean controls in all tissues except skeletal muscle and liver, where, although greatly reduced, lipogenesis was still significantly higher than in lean rats. Glycogen synthesis tended to be greater in all tissues of obese rats than in lean animals. Dietary restriction of obese rats did not greatly affect glycogen synthesis.

Antinociceptive action and plasma levels of acetylsalicylic acid in the dog

1. The analgesic potency of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is four times greater when administered intravenously than when administered orally. 2. The onset of the ASA analgesia after oral administration is significantly slower (30-60 min) than after intravenous (5-15 min) application. However, the duration of ASA-analgesia after oral administration is significantly longer (5 h) than after i.v. (2-4 h) application. 3. The onset and duration of ASA-analgesia in dogs after oral and i.v. administration cannot be correlated with plasma levels of ASA. During the period of analgesia, ASA can be detected only in extremely low concentrations, since it appears to be very rapidly hydrolysed to SA. 4. The development of an accurate and reproducible method for the separate determination of ASA and SA in plasma facilitated the direct correlation of plasma levels of these substances with ASA-induced analgesia.

Studies on the interaction of isoproterenol with plasma membranes isolated from rat myometrium

Catecholamine stimulation of adenyl cyclase in plasma membranes from rat myometrium was typical of beta-adrenoceptor stimulation. Thus, isoproterenol was the most potent followed by epinephrine and norepinephrine; phenylephrine, a pure alpha-agonist, did not activate the enzyme. The catecholamine-induced activation was potently inhibited by propranolol, whereas phenozybenzamine was without effect. The ED50 for 1-isoproterenol activation was 10- minus 7 M. Binding of [3H]-d-isoproterenol to the same preparations bore little resemblance to the pattern of 1-isoproterenol activation of adenyl cyclase. Propranolol, even at high concentrations, was without significant effect. The degree of binding was inversely rflated to the osmolarity suggesting that diffusion may have contributed to the binding. This contention was further supported by the time course of binding which was biphasic- the first component (smaller than 4 min) being less affected by osmolarity than the second (greater than 4 min). The optimum pH for binding was 7.4.