C-peptide immunoreactivity and insulin content in the diabetic human pancreas and the relation to the stability of diabetic serum glucose level.

The content of insulin and C-peptide-like immunoreactivity (CPR) were determined in the tail of pancreas from 35 autopsied diabetic and 21 non-diabetic subjects. In the 28 diabetics who had been followed for more than 6 months, the relation between the amount of insulin or CPR in the pancreas and the stability of fasting serum glucose during diabetic life before death was analyzed together with the relation between the serum CPR response to the breakfast tolerance test before death and insulin content at autopsy. As an index of the instability of the blood sugar level, the standard deviation of the mean of 15 successive determinations of fasting serum glucose was used. Both insulin and CPR content in the pancreas were significantly decreased in diabetics as compared with non-diabetics. SD of the mean fasting serum glucose and insulin or CPR content in the tail of pancreas showed a significant inverse correlation on a logarithmic scale (P less than 0.01, r = -0.704 and P less than 0.01, gamma = -0.757, respectively). Serum CPR value during the breakfast tolerance test correlated significantly with the insulin content in the pancreas of diabetic subjects. These findings suggest that one of the causes of the instability of fasting serum glucose levels is the devastation of pancreatic beta-cells and that the pancreatic insulin content is logarithmically and inversely related to fluctuations in fasting serum glucose.