Summary
The plasma glucose, C-peptide and insulin responses to subcutaneously administered highly purified porcine, ‘semi-synthetic’ and ‘biosynthetic’ human isophane (NPH) insulin and diluting medium as control in normal male subjects were evaluated. Porcine and semi-synthetic human NPH insulins were administered at two dose levels of 0.15 and 0.30 U/kg body weight and biosynthetic human NPH at 0.15 U/kg body weight only. At the low dose level the three insulin preparations resulted in a similar maximal hypoglycaemic effect within 3–5 h after administration. However, over the remainder of the 11 h post-injection period, the plasma glucose level was lower after semi-synthetic human insulin. In contrast, at the 0.30 U/kg dose level, there was no difference in the early or late hypoglycaemic response between porcine and semi-synthetic human NPH insulins of equivalent pharmaceutical formulation. The clinical relevance of these findings needs further evaluation. The data suggest that for the ‘intermediate-acting’ NPH insulin preparations, both the species of insulin, nature and quantity of the retarding protein and their subsequent interaction may determine their time-action characteristics.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Krayenbühl C, Rosenburg T (1946) Crystalline protamine insulin. Rep Steno Hosp (Copenh) 1: 60–73
Hagedorn HC (1946) The absorption of protamine insulin. Rep Steno Hosp (Copenh) 1: 25–39
Oakley W, Hill D, Oakley N (1966) Combined use of regular and crystalline protamine (NPH) insulins in the treatment of severe diabetes. Diabetes 15: 219–222
Markussen J, Damgaard U, Pingel M, Snel L, Sørensen AR, Sørensen E (1983) Human insulin (Novo): chemistry and characteristics. Diabetes Care 6 (Suppl 1): 4–8
Chance RE, Kroeff EP, Hoffman JA, Frank BH (1981) Chemical, physical and biological properties of biosynthetic human insulin. Diabetes Care 4: 147–154
Metropolitan Life Assurance Company (1960) Statistics bulletin. New York, No.41
Heding LG (1972) Determination of total serum insulin in insulin treated diabetic patients. Diabetologia 8: 260–266
Heding LG (1975) Radioimmunological determination of human C-peptide in serum. Diabetologia 11: 541–548
Ginsberg S, Block MB, Mako ME, Rubenstein AH (1973) Serum insulin levels following administration of exogenous insulin. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 6: 1175–1179
Malone JI, Root AW (1981) Plasma free insulin concentrations: keystone to effective management of diabetes mellitus in children. J Pediatr 6: 862–867
Lauritzen T, Pramming S, Gale EAM, Deckert T, Binder C (1982) Absorption of isophane (NPH) insulin and its clinical implications. Br Med J 285: 159–162
Galloway JA, Spradlin CT, Nelson RL, Wentworth Davidson JA, Swarner JL (1981) Factors influence the absorption, serum insulin concentration, and blood glucose responses after injections of regular insulin and various insulin mixtures. Diabetes Care 4: 366–376
Berger M, Cüppers HJ, Hegner H, Jörgens V, Berchtold P (1982) Absorption kinetics and biochemical effects of subcutaneously injected insulin preparations. Diabetes Care 5: 77–91
Galloway JA, Spradlin CT, Root MA, Fineberg SE (1981) The plasma glucose response of normal fasting subjects to neutral regular and NPH biosynthetic human and purified pork insulins. Diabetes Care 4: 183–188
Bauman WA, Yalow RS (1980) Differential diagnosis between endogenous and exogenous insulin-induced refractory hypoglycaemia in a non-diabetic patient. N Engl J Med 303: 198–199
Galloway JA, Root MA, Bergstrom R, Spradlin CT, Howly DC, Fineberg SE, Jackson RL (1982) Clinical pharmacological studies with human insulin (recombinant DNA). Diabetes Care 5 (Supp 2): 13–22
Weinges K, Ehrhardt M, Nell G, Enzmann F (1982) Pharmacodynamics of human insulin (recombinant DNA) regular, NPH and mixtures — obtained by the Gerritzen method in healthy volunteers. Diabetes Care 5 (Suppl 2): 67–70
Bottermann P, Gyaram H, Wahl K, Ermler R, Lebender A (1982) Insulin concentrations and time-action profiles in three different intermediate-acting insulin preparations in non-diabetic volunteers under glucose-controlled glucose infusion technique. Diabetes Care 5 (Suppl 2): 43–52
Markussen J (1982) The advent of human insulin in diabetic therapy. Medicographia 4 (No 2): 39–44
Clark AJL, Adeniyi-Jones RO, Knight G, Leiper JM, Wiles PG, Jones RH, Keen H, MacCuish AC, Ward JD, Watkins PJ, Cauldwell JM, Glynne A, Scotton JB (1982) Biosynthetic human insulin in the treatment of diabetes. Lancet 2: 352–357
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Owens, D.R., Jones, I.R., Birtwell, A.J. et al. Study of porcine and human isophane (NPH) insulins in normal subjects. Diabetologia 26, 261–265 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00283647
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00283647