ABSTRACT
The biological activity of plasma insulin from 4 cases of congenital generalized lipodystrophy has been studied, using rat diaphragm and epididymal adipose tissue in vivo. The results are compared with previous data on plasma immunoreactive insulin obtained in these patients. 2 of the 4 cases exhibited unusually high biological insulin activities during the fasting state as well as after an intravenous (iv) glucose load. In the fat pad assay activities as high as 10 000 μU insulin per ml were observed. During childhood the biological insulin activities were generally high, although there were large individual variations. However, in the one case studied after the age of puberty, the insulin response to a glucose load was negligible. Taken together, the biological and immunological activities observed strongly suggest the presence of pancreatic insulin in these patients. It appears that the circulating insulin has a fully biological activity. The decreasing insulin activities after cessation of growth are in agreement with the appearance of frank diabetes at this time.
