Persistent impairment of insulin secretion and glucose tolerance after malnutrition

ABSTRACT

Oral glucose tolerance tests on Jamaican children after an average of 3 months treatment in a hospital for malnutrition suggested a diminished peripheral uptake of glucose. This was confirmed with intravenous glucose tolerance tests. Despite 3 months treatment on an optimal diet the children's plasma levels of immunoreactive insulin were still subnormal, and the insulin response to intravenous glucose was much less than in Jamaican children who had never been malnourished. This suggests that malnutrition may produce a permanent reduction in the capacity for insulin secretion (AU)