Somatostatin in maturity-onset diabetes

Plasma FFA, glucagon, insulin, glucose, and growth hormone were followed every hour during 24 hours of saline infusion, 24 hours of somatostatin (4mg.) infusion, and three hours without infusion in six nonobese and six obese maturity-onset diabetic men. Somatostatin induced the same changes in the parameters of both groups of diabetic patients: A rise in plasma FFA, which gradually disappeared after some hours of infusion, a suppression of plasma glucagon and insulin, and an augmentation of plasma glucose both postprandially and during the night. Plasma growth hormone was suppressed in the nonobese patients, but somatostatin could not further suppress the low and nonfluctuating plasma growth hormone concentration in the obese maturity-onset diabetics. The results indicate that a preparation with a pattern of hormone suppression like that of somatostatin will not be useful in the control of maturity-onset diabetes, because it suppresses insulin and elevates the blood glucose concentration.