Abstract
Insulin has both metabolic and growth-promoting activities1–3. From extensive studies on the relative potencies of naturally occurring and chemically modified insulins, a region of the insulin molecule that is essential for its metabolic effects has been proposed4. Here, we have compared the effects of 23 different insulins and insulin analogues on growth (thymidine incorporation into DNA) and metabolic activities (glucose oxidation). For many insulins striking differences in potency in these two assays were observed. Most exhibited greater relative activity in growth-promoting than in the metabolic assay, suggesting that growth and metabolic activities of the insulin molecule have evolved in a non-parallel fashion and may involve separate functional domains of the molecule.
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King, G., Kahn, C. Non-parallel evolution of metabolic and growth-promoting functions of insulin. Nature 292, 644–646 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/292644a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/292644a0
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