The effect of insulin treatment on the metabolic response to glucagon in diabetes.

The metabolic response to intravenous glucagon was studied in insulin requiring diabetes before, 1 week and 1 month after treatment with insulin. The rise in plasma 3-hydroxybutyrate following glucagon in the untreated state was converted to a fall after 1 month on insulin. It is suggested that this response could provide a measure of the biological effectiveness of circulating insulin. There was no change in plasma cyclic AMP response to glucagon after treatment with insulin.