[Insulin content in the erythrocytes and blood serum of patients with acromegaly and Sheehan's syndrome].

Insulin content was studied by radioimmunological and histochemical methods in the erythrocytes and the blood serum of patients with acromegaly and the postpartum panhypopituitrism (Sheehan's syndrome) in comparison with that in healthy persons on fasting stomach and after glucose-tolerance test (GTT). It appeared that the erythrocytes of healthy persons contained 50 times more insulin on fasting stomach than the blood serum. In persons with acromegaly complicated by diabetes mellitus insulin content in the blood serum was almost double that in healthy individuals. But this "hyperinsulinism" was only seeming, since the hormone reserves in the organism (erythrocyte insulin content) were sharply diminished. Sheehan's syndrome was characterized by hypoinsulinemia (both in the serum and in the erythrocytes). After the GTT the insulin content rose in the serum, and decreased in the erythrocytes. This indicated that erythrocytes participated in the homeostasis regulation of glycemia.