Summary. Understanding of diabetes in molecular terms has advanced very little. The possibility that a structural difference exists in the circulating and pancreatic insulin moiety of diabetics is supported by three lines of evidence obtained in the authors' laboratory. --Immunologically purified circulating insulin from diabetic subjects untreated with insulin was noted to be relatively resistant to degradation by a crude muscle insulinase preparation. The pancreatic insulin of five diabetic pancreases was found to have a decreased biological activity in its ability to enhance glycogen synthesis in vivo and in its capacity to stimulate RNA turnover in tissue culture. --The nature of this "abnormal insulin" and its hypothetical role in the physiopathology of diabetes are discussed in the light of the need for a specific definition of the precise molecular change.
Exposg des arguments en faveur d'une ,,insuline anormale" dans le diab~teRdsumg. Pea de progr~s conduisant ~ la compr6hen-sion du diab~te en termes mol~culaires ont gt4 r6alisgs. La possibilit6 qu'il existe une modification dans la structure de l'insuline des diab~tiques, aussi bien circulante que pancr6atique, s'appuie sur trois arguments expgrimentaux obtenus au laboratoire des auteurs. --La purification imm,mochimique de l'insuline circulante de diabgtiques jeunes non tralt6s par