[Hormonal regulation of glucose metabolism in islands of Langerhans].

Insulin secretion and glucose metabolism were simultaneously studied in isolated islets obtained from normal, endocrine-deficient (adrenalectomized, ovariectomized and radiothyroidectomized) rats as well as from this latter group of rats previously submitted to specific substitutive therapy. The islets from all the endocrine-deficient rats showed clear and similar changes in both the insulin secretion and the metabolism of glucose, being the correlation between the degree of these two alterations highly significant. All the above mentioned abnormalities were corrected by the administration of the corresponding substitutive therapy. These results suggest that the hormones involved in this study could modify the B cell insulin secretion by changing their capacity to metabolize glucose.