Abstract
The effect of differing crossreactivities of antiglucagon sera with pancreatic and gut glucagon on the content of immunoreactive glucagon (IRG) in plasma has been investigated.
Two types of antisera employed in the study gave identical dilution curves for pancreatic glucagon, but different ones for gut glucagon. The mean value of IRG of seven plasma samples determined using antiserum less reactive to gut glucagon was 0.57±0.19 mμg/ml, but 0.77±0.22mμg/ml when measured with another antiserum. Similar findings were observed in IRG determination in the plasma samples obtained from a pancreatectomized patient containing gut glucagon alone. The recovery of gut glucagon added to plasma assayed with one antiserum differed from that using another, but those of pancreatic glucagon were the same without reference to antiserum employed.
These facts suggest a possible explanation for the widely divergent results reported for circulating glucagon levels.
