Pharmacokinetics of Subcutaneously Administered Human, Porcine and Bovine Neutral Soluble Insulin to Normal Man

Summary Highly purified neutral soluble human, porcine and bovine insulin (0.075 U/kg body weight) were administered randomly by subcutaneous injection to six normal men. Somatostatin by continuous intravenous infusion (100 μg/h) was used to suppress endogenous insulin secretion. The effects of the three species of insulins on plasma glucose, immunoreactive insulin (IRI), C-peptide and intermediary metabolite concentrations were essentially similar. The onset of hypoglycaemic action of bovine insulin was delayed compared to human and porcine insulin due possibly to a lower receptor binding of the bovine insulin. No local or systemic adverse reactions to the insulins were observed.