Carbohydrate metabolism in infantile malnutrition

ABSTRACT

It has been established that malnourished infants have various disorders of carbohydrate metabolism. The present studies were designed to investigate the cause of impaired glucose tolerance which has previously been described. Glucose was given intravenously to children when malnourished and after recovery. Blood glucose, pyruvated and lactate were measured. There was no difference between the two groups in initial lactate or pyruvate levels, and there was no significant rise in either after glucose in malnourished infants; in contrast the recovered children showed significant increases in both pyruvate and lactate. Next in vitro lactate production from various substrates was measured from muscle homogenates. With all substrates used there was difference in lactate production between malnourished and recovered children. However, muscle samples from healthy children showed significantly higher lactate production from all substracts. Insulin sensitivity was assessed by measuring the disappearance of inject glucose after intravenous insulin. Glucose disappearance after insulin was prolonged in the malnourished children. The data suggests that the glucose intolerance of malnutrition is the result of insulin insensitivity (AU)