Effect of Insulin on Blood Lipids in Non-diabetic Individuals

Abstract

IT is well known that diabetic patients show an increased value in blood lipids and that insulin decreases the lipæmia in diabetics¹. The plasma cholesterol tends to be higher in diabetes mellitus and after insulin administration there is a tendency to decrease, but the exogenous administration of insulin to non-diabetic patients has little effect². Other investigations show that an interrelationship exists between plasma lipids and insulin since a decrease in plasma free fatty acids is observed after insulin administration³. However, little is known about the effect of insulin on total plasma lipids in non-diabetic individuals. The free fatty acids constitute an important but minor constituent of the lipids and, therefore, a decrease in the amount of free fatty acids may not indicate a change in the total circulating lipids. Furthermore, the effect of insulin on blood lipids in diabetics may be complicated by other factors such as renal damage and vascular disease, which could contribute to hyperlipæmia. Therefore work was undertaken to examine the effect of insulin on total blood lipids and phospholipids in schizophrenic patients undergoing insulin-coma therapy.