Alteration of insulin-binding receptors in non-insulin dependent diabetes of the young.

The behaviour of insulin binding receptors is rather unelucidated in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus of the young. Authors in continuing their previous work studied the behaviour of insulin binding receptors of erythrocytes and monocytes in 9 MODY patients. They observed that specific insulin binding of circulating blood cells was significantly decreased in all cases as compared to the controls despite of a good state of metabolism (in the case of erythrocytes 4.63 +/- 1.1% vs. 6.03 +/- 1.7%, p less than 0.05, in the case of monocytes 2.3 +/- 1.2% vs. 3.6 +/- 1.4%, p less than 0.05). The lower value of insulin binding resulted from the decrease of receptor concentrations (in the case of erythrocytes 2.36 +/- 0.78 pmol/l vs. 3.81 +/- 1.14 pmol/l, p less than 0.05).