Type 2 diabetic patients may have a mild form of an injury response: a clinical research center study

Department of Internal Medicine, Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, Torrance, California 90509 Patients with type 2 diabetes (DM) demonstrate inadequate insulin release, elevated gluconeogenesis, and diminished nonoxidative glucose disposal. Similar metabolic changes occur during systemic injury caused by infection, trauma, or cancer. Described here are metabolic changes occurring in 16 DM and 11 lung cancer patients (CA) and 13 normal volunteers (NV). After a 10-h overnight fast, all subjects had fasting hormone and substrate concentrations determined, along with rates of glucose production, leucine appearance (LA), and leucine oxidation (LO). Fasting insulin (data not shown) and C-peptide concentrations were elevated in DM and CA compared with weight-matched NV (0.72 ± 0.09 and 0.64 ± 0.08 vs. 0.51 ± 0.03 mg/l, P