The effect of alanine infusions on growth hormone, insulin, and glucose in protein-calorie malnutrition.

In view of the previously reported inverse correlation between the elevated serum growth hormone (HGH) and low alanine in children with protein-calorie malnutrition (PCM), 30-min alanine infusions were performed in five children with PCM and 12-hr infusions in four children before and after therapy. These infusions did not lower basal HGH or improve its glucose suppressibility in untreated PCM, excluding a feedback relationship between HGH and alanine. There was no insulinotropic effect during 30-min infusions, but an improved insulin response to glucose after the 12-hr alanine infusion was found in three of four children before therapy. Plasma glucose rose slightly during alanine infusion in three of five children before treatment, but the magnitude of change was small and the relevance unclear.