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The Effects of Insulin on Urinary Urea and Ammonia Production

Surgical Research Laboratories Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Surgery, School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

^* Address for correspondence: T. P. Stein, Department of Surgery, Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 19th and Lombard Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19146.

Present address of W. S. Blakemore: Department of Surgery, Medical College of Ohio at Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, 43614.

¹⁵N-Iabelled glycine, ammonium chloride, and L-aspartic acid were infused intravenously into a series of non-diabetic adults at a constant rate for 4 to 8 hours. Midway during the infusion, a pulse of 8–10 units of regular insulin was injected as a pulse or infused at a constant rate for the remainder of the ¹⁵N infusion period. Frequent urine specimens were collected during the infusion period. The ¹⁵N enrichment of the urinary urea, ammonia, and amino acids increased smoothly with time until the insulin was given. The pulse of insulin caused a downturn on the ¹⁵N enrichment. We concluded from this that a) the effect of a pulse of insulin on human urea and ammonia metabolism lasted for about one hour, and b) insulin affected glutamine distribution in the plasma.

Supported by grant no. AM 16658 from the USPHS.

Received January 13, 1975.