Carbohydrate-containing materials in urine from normal and diabetic subjects

1. Abnormalities in glycoprotein metabolism are believed to play a role in diabetic microangiopathy. We have therefore measured the urinary excretion of carbohydrate-containing materials in normal and diabetic subjects. 2. Diabetic subjects were found to excrete excessive quantities of such material, which may parallel the increases observed in plasma and structural glycoproteins found in previous studies. 3. Systemic administration of a synthetic derivative of vasicine, which is known to affect mucus glycoprotein, was shown to restore these elevated urinary concentrations seen in diabetic subjects to values close to normal, but his drug had no significant effect on urinary concentrations of such materials in normal subjects.