Pancreatic polypeptide and insulin contents in diabetic and nondiabetic human pancreas and their relationship to the stability of the fasting serum glucose.

The amounts of insulin and pancreatic polypeptide (PP) in twenty four autopsied diabetic and nineteen nondiabetic human pancreases were determined and their relationship to the stability of the fasting serum glucose level was investigated. The PP content of the tail of the pancreas in diabetic and nondiabetic subjects was 9.55 +/- 2.41 and 7.71 +/- 1.52 micrograms/g pancreas, and that of the head of the pancreas was 16.86 +/- 5.51 and 15.82 +/- 5.38 micrograms/g, respectively. No significant differences in content were found between diabetic and nondiabetic pancreases. The PP content of the head pancreas of some diabetics and nondiabetics was higher than that of the tail. The insulin content of the tail of the diabetic pancreas was lower than that of the nondiabetic pancreas. In those diabetics where there was less than 0.5 U/g of insulin in the tail pancreas, the stability of the fasting serum glucose was very poor, indicating an unstable type of diabetes. There was a significant inverse correlation between standard deviation of FBS and the amount of insulin, but the PP content of the pancreas had no relation to the stability of the fasting serum glucose.