It has previously been shown that the incretin effect accounts for ≈50% of the insulin response to oral glucose in normal mice. Now, I have proceeded and studied the contribution of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) to the insulin response to oral glucose in female mice by using receptor antagonists. A specific GIP receptor antagonist (mGIP(3-30); 50 or 500 nmol/kg), a specific GLP-1 receptor antagonist (exendin(9-39); 3 or 30 nmol/kg), the combination of mGIP (500 nmol/kg) and exendin(9-39) (30 nmol/kg), or saline was given intravenously four minutes after administration of glucose (50 mg) through a gastric tube in anesthetized C57/BL6J mice (n = 95) with samples obtained before glucose administration and after 15, 30 and 60 min. The insulinogenic index, determined as the area under the 60 min curve for insulin (AUCinsulin) divided by the AUCglucose, was used to reflect the insulin response. It was found that the insulinogenic index was reduced by 67 ± 4% by mGIP(3-30) (p < 0.001), by 60 ± 14% by exendin(9-39) (p = 0.007) and by 61 ± 14% by the combination of mGIP(3-30) and exendin(9-39) (p = 0.043), both at their highest doses, compared to animals injected with glucose in the same experimental series. It is concluded that both GIP and GLP-1 are required for a normal incretin effect in female mice, that they contribute similarly to the insulin response, and that it is unlikely that there is another incretin hormone in this species.
Keywords: GIP; GLP-1; incretin; mice.