Impairment of early insulin response after glucose load, rather than insulin resistance, is responsible for postprandial hyperglycemia seen in obese type 2 diabetes: assessment using nateglinide, a new insulin secretagogue.

The insulin secretory pattern as a phenotype of type 2 diabetes is an impairment in the rapid, pulsatile secretion of insulin in response to a rise in blood glucose after meal-intake. The restoration of endogenous rapid insulin secretion after oral glucose load was established for the first time by using nateglinide, which is a newly developed insulin secretagogue, in obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It was clearly demonstrated that with nateglinide, serum insulin levels were quickly raised, and glycemic response curves were almost normalized with the same amount of insulin secretion during 180 min. Therefore, the lack of rapid, pulsatile secretion of insulin in response to glycemic rise after oral glucose load, rather than insulin resistance, is responsible for postprandial glycemic response in obese type 2 diabetes patients.