Human (recombinant DNA) and porcine NPH insulins are unequally effective in diabetic patients. A comparative study using continuous blood glucose monitoring

Abstract

The hypoglycemic activities of NPH biosynthetic human and pork insulins were compared in eight insulin-dependent diabetic patients using continuous blood glucose monitoring. After an overnight normalization of blood glucose levels, either human or pork NPH were injected subcutaneously in random order. Blood glucose was continuously recorded during 9.5 h while patients were consuming their usual diet. After NPH biosynthetic human insulin, blood glucose levels from the 2nd to the 9th h post-injection were lower as well as the glycemic nadir. The area under the curve was smaller after human than after pork insulin. But, in the last half-hour of the experiment, blood glucose was falling after pork insulin, while it was rising after human insulin. Under the conditions of this study, our results demonstrate that NPH biosynthetic human insulin may be more effective than NPH pork insulin, due to more rapid subcutaneous absorption but its duration is shorter than after porcine NPH insulin. These data may be of importance in the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.