Abstract
There have been many reports, using pancreatic specific glucagon-antibody “K30”. Since some clearly stated that after pancreatectomy, plasma pancreatic glucagon levels increased, it has become a major problem whether, in the normal state, the gastrointestinal glucagon which react the pancreatic specific glucagon antibody is determined, or whether there is any physiological activity of the extrapancreatic glucagon on the blood sugar metabolism.
The present study was designed to detect any increase in the gastrointestinal glucagon which react the pancreatic specific glucagon antibody in the normal state, and also to examine the function of the extrapancreatic glucagon on the blood sugar metabolism.
Twenty healthy dogs, weighing from 10 to 12kg, were used. These dogs were operated on under Ketalar anesthesia. After insertion of polyethlene catheters into the femoral and axillar veins, tracheal catheters were intubated. Under additional Ravonal anesthesia, gastroenterectomy of these dogs was performed, resecting from the end of the esophagus to the end of the ampulla of the rectum with a midline abdominal incision. The pancreases of all the dogs were preserved almost intact. The bleeding volumes and packed cell volumes (PCV) were measured during this operation at ten minute intervals. At the end of this operation, which took one hour and a half, PCV decreased from 43% to 32% in each dog. The five control dogs were exsanguinated at 32% of PCV for one and a half hours and only laparotomy was performed as a sham-operation under Ketalar anesthesia.
1) Immediately after surgery, Arginine was administered at the rate of 130mg/kg/min for 15 minutes to the five gastroenterectomized dogs and to the five dogs who had under-gone the Sham operation. Plasma glucagon immunoreactivity (GI) (measured using pancreatic specific glucagon-antibody “K30” (Unger, Texas)) rose from a mean baseline value of 115 ± 9pg/ml up to a mean peak value of 200 ± 9pg/ml at 10 minutes in the gastroenterectomized dogs, and also, in the control dogs, GI rose from a mean baseline value of 158 ± 16 pg/ml to a mean peak value of 300 ±25pg/ml at 15 minutes. Total GLI (measured using non-specific glucagon-antibody “K4023” (Novo, Denmark)) increased from a mean baseline value of 130 ±14pg/ml to a mean peak value of 220 ±18pg/ml at 15 minutes in the gastroenterectomized. dogs, and also, in the control dogs, total GLI increased from a mean baseline value of 330 ±13pg/ml to a mean peak value of 705 ±62pg/ml at 10 minutes. IRI (measured by the two-antibody method) rose from a mean baseline value of 13 ±2μU/ml to a mean peak value of 46 ±812U/ml at 15 minutes in the gastroenterectomized dogs, and also, in the control dogs, IRI rose from a mean baseline value of 16 ±4/.2U/ml to a mean peak value of 32 ±3μU/ml. Blood sugar levels (BS) (measured by the glucose oxidase method) decreased from 152±2mg/dl to a mean trough value of 127 ±4mg/dl at 15 minutes in the gastroenterectomized dogs, but showed little change in the control dogs.
2) At 2 hours after surgery, Arginine was administered at the same rate and the same volume as that at just after surgery to the five gastroenterectomized dogs and the five control dogs. There was no remarkable difference between the responses of GI, total GLI, IRI and BS to that at 2 hours after surgery and those responses at just after surgery.
GI responses in arginine experiments showed significantly lower values at any point in the gastroenterectomized dogs than those in the control dogs (with the Student's t-test P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the response of GI and that of total GLI in the arginine experiments in the gastroenterectomized dogs at any point. Also IRI response showed no significant difference between the gastroenterectomized dogs and the control dogs.
