Response of Serum Levels of Gastric Inhibitory Polypeptide and Insulin to Sucrose Ingestion During Long-term Application of Acarbose

Abstract

Sucrose (100 g) loading tests were performed in 10 healthy volunteers before and during the intake of an α-glucosidehydrolase inhibitor (acarbose) for 8 weeks (3 × 200 mg daily) and serum levels of glucose, immunoreactive insulin (IRI), and immunoreactive gastric inhibitory polypeptide (IR-GIP) were measured. The addition of 200 mg of acarbose to the sucrose load attenuated the sucrose-induced glycaemia and IRI response and completely abolished the IR-GIP release. The volunteers complained about meteorism and abdominal pain during the intake of the inhibitor. These side effects became less marked at the end of the study. The attenuation of complaints cannot be explained by a decreasing sucrase inhibition, since the increase of glucose, IRI, and IR-GIP after sucrose loading at the beginning and after 4 and 8 weeks was equally impaired by acarbose.

Key-words:

• Acarbose
• α-glucosidehydrolase inhibitor
• gastric inhibitory polypeptide
• glucose
• insulin
• sucrose tolerance