Abstract
The plasma insulin and glucose responses to intravenous glucose administration were studied in rats after 1, 3, and 6 weeks of bile duct occlusion. One week after the occlusion the first-phase plasma insulin response to glucose was clearly reduced, whereas the late-phase response was increased. Despite a relative hypoglycemia. a clearly increased glucose-induced elevation of plasma insulin was noted after 3 weeks' bile flow obstruction, at which time the median 15-min plasma insulin response to glucose was 38 μU/ml in duct-occluded rats and 7 üU/ml in control rats (p < 0.001). At the same time an increased glucose elimination rate of 3.59%/min in duct-occluded rats and 3.08%/min in control rats (median values; p < 0.05) was observed. Available evidence suggests that the effect on the insulin response may be induced by the trypsin-sensitive branch of the ‘enteroinsular axis’.