HISTONE ZINC INSULIN—ITS PHARMACOLOGIC CHARACTERISTICS AND ITS APPLICATION IN THE TREATMENT OF DIABETES MELLITUS

¹ From the Medical Service, Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia

The comparative effects of identical doses of histone zinc, unmodified, crystalline, and protamine zinc insulin were observed under strictly controlled conditions in twelve diabetic patients and in one nondiabetic subject. The hypoglycemic effects of unmodified and crystalline insulin disappeared between six and eight hours after administration, whereas those of histone zinc insulin subsided in eighteen to twenty-two hours, and those of protamine zinc insulin between twenty-four and thirty-six hours.

The blood sugar lowering effect of histone zinc insulin is less abrupt and more prolonged than that of unmodified and crystalline insulin but more prompt than that of protamine zinc insulin. These qualities make it possible

[See table in the PDF file]

to secure a continuously normal blood sugar level and a freedom from glycosuria in a larger number of patients after a single morning injection of histone zinc insulin than is possible when other preparations are employed.