Cortisol, glucagon and growth hormone responses to oral glucose in non-insulin-dependent diabetes in the young.

Cortisol and growth hormone (GH) responses to a 100 g oral glucose load were measured in 85 Indian patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes in the young (NIDDY) and 50 reference subjects; in 16 patients and 12 reference subjects the glucagon responses were also assessed. Fasting serum cortisol and plasma glucagon levels were significantly higher in the NIDDY group (P less than 0.001); in contrast, GH levels in the NIDDY patients were significantly lower (P less than 0.01). Plasma glucagon was only significantly suppressed 150 minutes after oral glucose loading in the NIDDY group, in contrast to the reference group, which showed maximum suppression at 90 minutes; at all time intervals plasma glucagon levels were significantly higher in the NIDDY patients. Obesity did not affect fasting plasma glucagon levels. In response to the oral glucose load serum cortisol levels in the NIDDY patients were suppressed in parallel with those in the reference group but remained significantly higher throughout the period of observation at all time intervals. Obese NIDDY patients had higher fasting cortisol levels, but their response to orally administered glucose was no different from that of the NIDDY group as a whole. GH suppression by oral glucose in NIDDY patients was less than that in the reference group, and the rebound rise occurred earlier. Obese NIDDY patients had higher fasting GH levels than their non-obese counterparts, but responses to the glucose load were not different.