A soluble super-active form of insulin.

Insulin-like material can be extracted from insulin-Sepharose. This soluble material elicits super-insulin responses from mammary epithelial cells. It stimulates the accumulation of alpha-aminoisobutyric acid by virgin mouse mammary cells, which are unresponsive to insulin itself. It exerts a greater stimulatory effect on mammary cells from pregnant mice than insulin. It also is more efficacious than insulin as a stimulant of DNA synthesis and the combined activities of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.49) and phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.43). Its specific biological activity on these cells is more than five times greater than that of insulin.