The fate of the sugar disappearing under the action of insulin

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Abstract
In eviscerated spinal preparations the inorganic P of the blood was decreased by insulin. This fall persisted even when the blood sugar was kept at a high level by intravenous administration of dextrose. The decrease of phosphate is, therefore, associated with the disappearance of sugar and not merely with the lowered sugar level of the blood. Insulin causes no significant change in the lactacidogen content of the muscles. The changes in blood phosphate suggest that the sugar becomes a phosphate ester at one stage of its metabolism in the muscles, but there is no significant storage in that form. In the eviscerated spinal preparation 40-50% of the sugar which disappeared under the influence of insulin was deposited as glycogen in the muscles. The increase in glycogen of the muscles of the spinal preparation with viscera intact was at least as pronounced as in those experiments where the viscera had been removed. Even when the blood sugar has been allowed to fall under insulin to a very low level, and to remain there for a long period, the glycogen of the muscles is not perceptibly depleted. When lethal doses of insulin were administered to rabbits, in which 1 sciatic nerve had been cut a few days previously, insulin convulsions played a very important role in the depletion of muscle gycogen. In the denervated muscles which participated only passively in the convulsions, the glycogen content was within normal limits in spite of the prolonged hypoglycaemia. In the corresponding muscles of the normal side the glycogen was greatly reduced.

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