1 Departments of Pediatrics and Clinical Science, University of Pittsburgh Medical School
Children with diabetes mellitus of varying duration were given tolbutamide and indole-3-acetic acid by mouth. The response of the concentration of sugar in the blood to these insulin-dependent hypoglycemic agents was measured. It was demonstrated that children with diabetes of recent origin do respond to these agents. Hence, it is postulated that the pancreas is capable of secreting insulin early in the course of juvenile diabetes. This ability is gradually and steadily lost so that children with diabetes of over 2 years duration are almost uniformly unresponsive to these two hypoglycemic agents. The data suggest that after a variable period of clinically evident diabetes mellitus, the pancreas of the child becomes exhausted and incapable of secreting insulin.
Submitted on December 11, 1957