Glucagon suppression improves glucoregulation in moderate but not chronic severe diabetes

Glucagon suppression improves glucoregulation in moderate but not chronic severe diubetes. Am. J. Physiol. 245 (Endocrinol. Metab. 8): E424-E429, 1983.-To determine the effectiveness of glucagon suppression in improving glucose homeostasis in diabetes, tracer-determined glucose kinetics were measured during a 6-h somatostatin infusion in six alloxan-diabetic dogs (moderately severe diabetes) and five depancreatized dogs de-prived of insulin treatment for 3 days (prolonged severe dia-betes). Plasma immunoreactive glucagon (IRG) decreased 70 & 9 % in the alloxan-diabetic and 80 t 4 % in the depancreatized dogs. Portal vein levels of plasma immunoreactive insulin (IRI) fell (17.0 t 2.3 to 5.5 * 0.4 pU/ml) as did peripheral vein IRI levels (6.7 t 0.9 to 4.7 * 0.5 pU/ml) in the alloxan-diabetic dogs. In the depancreatized dogs plasma IRI levels were unde-tectable. Plasma glucose concentrations fell (278 t 17 to 169