The simultaneous assessment of insulin action, secretion, and hepatic extraction is key to understanding postprandial glucose metabolism in nondiabetic and diabetic humans. We review the oral minimal method (i.e., models that allow the estimation of insulin sensitivity, β-cell responsivity, and hepatic insulin extraction from a mixed-meal or an oral glucose tolerance test). Both of these oral t...

The recently published SDM model for the glucose/insulin system regulation during an IntraVenous Glucose Tolerance Test will be presented and its performance will be compared to that of the Minimal Model. Conclusions will be drawn with respect to incorrect schemes of parameter estimation by decoupling, and the connection between physiological appropriateness, acceptable qualitative behavior of ...

I N A PREVIOUS STUDY of the effect of thyroidectomy on oral glucose tolerance, interpretation of the findings was complicated by the marked difference in size between thyroidectomized and normal control rats (I). It was demonstrated that age had a pronounced effect on the rate of intestinal absorption of glucose, but it was not ascertained if this was a direct effect of age or secondary to its ...

Dynamics of nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) metabolism in humans requires quantification if we are to understand the etiology of such diseases as type 1 and 2 diabetes, as well as metabolic syndrome and obesity, or if we are to elucidate the mechanism of action of various interventions. We present a new compartmental model that employs the pattern of plasma glucose concentrations in healthy you...

No studies are available that have compared early defects in glucose metabolism in the offspring of insulin-deficient and insulin-resistant probands with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). To investigate this issue, we evaluated insulin secretion capacity with oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests and with the hyperglycemic clamp, and insulin action with the euglycemic insu...

Dysfunctional insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells plays a major role in the development of diabetes. The intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) is a widely used clinical test to assess β-cell function. The analysis of IVGTT data is conveniently performed using mathematical models, which need to be fairly simple to enable parameter identifiability (minimal models), but should at the sa...

Unacylated ghrelin (UAG) is the predominant ghrelin isoform in the circulation. Despite its inability to activate the classical ghrelin receptor, preclinical studies suggest that UAG may promote β-cell function. We hypothesized that UAG would oppose the effects of acylated ghrelin (AG) on insulin secretion and glucose tolerance. AG (1 µg/kg/h), UAG (4 µg/kg/h), combined AG+UAG, or saline were i...