Transient stimulatory effect of sustained hyperglucagonemia on splanchnic glucose production in normal and diabetic man.

Insulin can modulate glucagon-stimulated hepatic glucose production and is considered to be the major factor acting in vivo to exert a couterregulatory action to glucagon. The insulin-dependent diabetic, therefore, might be especially vulnerable to enhanced hepatic glucose production promoted by glucagon. To investigate this hypothesis, low-dose glucagon infusions were administered to normal and diabetic men to compare the effects of glucagon on net splanchnic glucose production (NSGP). Four normal and three insulin-dependent, ketosis-prone, hyperglycemic diabetic men (insulin withheld for 24 hours) underwent brachial-artery-hepatic-vein catheterization. Each received a 90-minute glucagon infusion at 5 ng/kg./min. Glucagon levels rose four-to-fivefold in both groups, plateauing at 300-600 pg./ml. In the normals, NSGP rose from 92+/-12 to 211+/-31 mg./min. at 15 minutes and returned to basal levels by 45 minutes. Insulin measured in the hepatic vein rose from 19+/-6 to 33+/-11 muU/.ml., while plasma glucose rose 17 mg./dl. In the insulin-dependent diabetics, NSGP rose from 78+/-24 to a peak of 221+/-33 mg./min. at 30 minutes and then fell sharply to 113+/-15 mg./min. at 60 minutes despite continuing hyperglucagonemia. Plasma glucose in the diabetics rose 21 mg./dl. These data suggest a mechanism that acts to rapidly diminish glucagon-induced hepatic glucose production in diabetic man but does not appear to be mediated by increased insulin secretion.