Plasma insulin and C-peptide after subcutaneous and intravenous administration of human insulin (recombinant DNA) and purified porcine insulin in healthy men.

We have compared the plasma profiles of C-peptide, human insulin (recombinant DNA), and purified porcine insulin of pancreatic origin (PPI) in six nondiabetic men after low-dose (4.8 U) or high-dose (9.6 U) subcutaneous injection and low-rate (1.0 U/h) or high-rate (1.7 U/h) intravenous infusion. There was no significant difference in plasma C-peptide or glucose levels when human insulin was compared with PPI at either dose level for subcutaneous injection or intravenous infusion. Thus, there was equal suppression of endogenous insulin by the two species of exogenous insulin. For low-dose subcutaneous injection there was no significant difference between plasma insulin levels of the two species at single time points or when areas were compared. For high-dose subcutaneous injection mean plasma insulin levels were higher after human insulin than after PPI (20-300 min); this serial difference reached conventional statistical significance at 50 min (P less than 0.05) and 90 min (P less than 0.01). For the area under plasma insulin profiles between 0 and 90 min after high-dose s.c. injection, human insulin was higher than PPI (P = 0.06). There was no significant difference between insulin concentrations after human insulin and PPI given by either low- or high-dose intravenous infusion, except that high-dose PPI values (55-110 min) were slightly but significantly higher after high-dose intravenous infusion. Further comparisons of the pharmacokinetics of human and other species of insulin are, therefore, justified in larger numbers of subjects and particularly in diabetic individuals.