HIGH LEVELS OF PANCREATIC INSULIN COEXISTENT WITH HYPERPLASIA AND DEGRANULATION OF BETA CELLS IN MICE WITH THE HEREDITARY OBESE-HYPERGLYCEMIC SYNDROME¹

Abstract

insulin in obese-hyperglycemic mice THROUGH measurements of endogenous insulin, the existence of at least two types of diabetes mellitus in man has been established (Bornstein and Lawrence, 1951; Wrenshall, Bogoch and Ritchie, 1952). In one type, which includes all growth-onset subjects studied, the source and supply of endogenous insulin are almost totally destroyed after a relatively brief initial period following the onset of diabetes. In a second type, which includes a majority of maturity-onset diabetic human subjects, much higher values for the insulin of pancreas and of blood plasma are found. In such subjects there is little if any tendency for the pancreatic depot of insulin to decrease in size with duration of the diabetes. The insulin of pancreas in the diabetes of mature dogs resulting from diabetogenic pituitary factors, alloxan, partial pancreatectomy or in diabetes appearing spontaneously corresponds with that in the first of the above two types of diabetes in man (Wrenshall, Bogoch and Ritchie, 1952; Wrenshall, Hartroft and Best, 1953, and in press).