Influence of insulin on the incorporation of 2-14C-sodium pyruvate into glyceride glycerol in diabetic and normal baboons.

DEPANCREATIZED baboons, deprived of insulin for 4 days, develop a lipaemia and a fatty liver, which may contain 34 per cent of fat when estimated on a wet-weight basis1,2. The lipaemia in diabetic rats has generally been attributed to mobilization of fat from the depots. In the baboon, the severity of the lipaemia and the degree of fat accumulation in the liver, particularly in young animals with poorly developed fat depots, suggested that the fat was not mobilized only from the depots, and this warranted a re-investigation of the origin of the fat in the liver and in the plasma. In this communication it is proposed to report on the incorporation of 2-14C sodium pyruvate into the glyceride glycerol in a normal baboon and in depancreatized baboons either receiving insulin or deprived of insulin.