Distribution of the Blood Sugar Between Plasma and Corpuscles in Man.

Abstract

In recent publications the suggestion that the blood sugar is unevenly distributed between corpuscles and plasma, and that the ratio of cell sugar to plasma sugar in blood of normal persons and of persons with diabetes is different, has been revived. Johns 1 has expressed the opinion that the corpuscles of the blood of persons with diabetes are less permeable to glucose than those of the blood of normal persons. Folin and Svedberg, 2 on the other hand, have found evidence by the analysis of unlaked blood filtrates that the corpuscles of persons who have diabetes are slightly more permeable to glucose than the corpuscles of normal persons. The average ratios reported by Folin and Svedberg are 0.59 for normal persons and 0.69 for persons with diabetes, and are to be considered as representing the distribution of fermentable reducing substances. These values, indicating that the corpuscles contain less sugar than the plasma, are much lower than those obtained in a recent study in this laboratory, in which the well-known laked blood 3 filtrates were analyzed by the modified Shaffer-Hartman method. 4 With the object of investigating the rather large differences, a series of comparative analyses of the filtrates from laked and unlaked blood has been carried out.

The experimental procedure was designed particularly to avoid initial loss in the cell sugar by glycolysis and will be described in detail elsewhere. Unlaked blood filtrates were prepared with the mixed sodium sulfate-sodium tungstate reagent recently described by Folin. 5 Heparin was used as the anticoagulant. All results were corrected for nonfermentable reducing materials as determined by a modification of the technic of Somogyi, 6 and are reported here in terms of fermentable reducing substances. A modification of the Shaffer-Hartman reagent, a description of which has not been published, was used for the analyses.