Effect of Thyroxine Treatment on Metabolic Responses to a Single Insulin Injection

Abstract

Metabolic responses to a single i.v. injection of crystalline insulin (0.2 I.U./kg b.w.) were compared in control and T₄- treated dogs both at rest and after prolonged physical exercise. The post-insulin decrease in blood glucose was significantly correlated with the pre-insulin BG concentration. Thus, the insulin-induced fall of BG was greatest in T₄- treated dogs at rest, in which significantly higher BG levels were found in comparison with controls, and smallest in the same dogs after exercise, i.e. at the lowest initial BG concentrations. The post-insulin hypoglycaemia caused marked increases in the plasma FFA level in control dogs, both at rest and after physical effort, and in T₄-treated dogs at rest. They were accompanied by elevations in the plasma adrenaline levels. In T₄-treated dogs given insulin after exercise decreases both in the plasma FFA and A concentrations were found. In the majority of the control and T₄-treated dogs insulin injected at rest caused an increase in blood LA levels, being more pronounced in the latter. Insulin injected after physical exercise did not change blood LA level in T₄ treated dogs, and it caused its decrease in the control animals. The results of these investigations show that both T₄-treatment and physical exercise, performed prior to insulin injection, modify the metabolic response to insulin and post-insulin hypoglycaemia.

Key words

Thyroxine - Insulin - Hypoglycaemia - FFA - Adrenaline