and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) regulate islet function after carbohydrate ingestion. Whether incretin hormones are of importance for islet function after ingestion of noncarbohydrate macronutrients is not known. This study therefore examined integrated incretin and islet hormone responses to ingestion of pure fat (oleic acid; 0.88 g/kg) or protein (milk and egg protein; 2 g/kg) over 5 h in healthy men, aged 20 -25 yr (n ϭ 12); plain water ingestion served as control. Both intact (active) and total GLP-1 and GIP levels were determined as was plasma activity of dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4). Following water ingestion, glucose, insulin, glucagon, GLP-1, and GIP levels and DPP-4 activity were stable during the 5-h study period. Both fat and protein ingestion increased insulin, glucagon, GIP, and GLP-1 levels without affecting glucose levels or DPP-4 activity. The GLP-1 responses were similar after protein and fat, whereas the early (30 min) GIP response was higher after protein than after fat ingestion (P Ͻ 0.001). This was associated with sevenfold higher insulin and glucagon responses compared with fat ingestion (both P Ͻ 0.001). After protein, the early GIP, but not GLP-1, responses correlated to insulin (r 2 ϭ 0.86; P ϭ 0.0001) but not glucagon responses. In contrast, after fat ingestion, GLP-1 and GIP did not correlate to islet hormones. We conclude that, whereas protein and fat release both incretin and islet hormones, the early GIP secretion after protein ingestion may be of primary importance to islet hormone secretion.insulin; glucagon; glucagon-like peptide-1; glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide; incretins; man THE INTEGRATED ENDOCRINE RESPONSES TO FOOD INGESTION are dependent on both the size and the composition of a meal and include the postprandial release of the incretin hormones glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and the islet hormones insulin and glucagon (3,5,21,32). Most studies have focused on responses to an oral glucose tolerance test, after which levels of GIP, GLP-1, and insulin rise, whereas glucagon levels are suppressed (4,18,20, 24). It is also known that fat and protein ingestion stimulate GLP-1 and GIP secretion (10,14,20,27). Less is known, however, regarding relationships between the incretin responses and changes in insulin and glucagon levels after meal or noncarbohydrate macronutrient ingestions.GLP-1 and GIP are rapidly degraded by dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4), which cleaves the two NH 2 -terminal amino acids of the peptides, making them largely inactive (9). Accurate estimation of the relationship between incretin hormone secretion and islet hormones therefore requires measurement of both the total and the active intact forms of the two incretins. How this is related to macronutrient ingestion is not known. Indeed, we recently showed in mice that protein ingestion increased intact incretin hormone levels compared with carbohydrate ingestion, and this was associated with reduced intestinal DPP-4...