The Serum Amino Acid Spectrum of Insulin-Dependent Diabetics and Controls from Ethiopia

Summary

The serum amino acid spectrum was examined in healthy men and insulin-dependent diabetics from Ethiopia. Comparison of serum amino acids of controls from Gondar with Ethiopians after adaptation to a free European diet revealed a marginal low protein nutrition, but not the characteristic changes of malnutrition or experimental starvation. There was no apparent nutritional deficiency of sulphur-containing amino acids in Ethiopians.

Insulin-dependent diabetics showed significantly elevated serum levels of BCAA indicating an accelerated protein catabolism in recent-onset insulin-deficient patients and known diabetics respectively, most of them in poor metabolic condition. Serum glutamine levels were reduced, suggesting a considerable renal contribution to the hyperglycaemia/glucosuria of diabetics. The data may be best explained by the low residual insulin secretion at diabetes onset or by the poor degree of metabolic control of known Ethiopian diabetics.

Key words

Serum amino acids - Branched-chain amino acids - Glutamine - Diabetes mellitus - Ethiopia