Other Uses of Measuring C-Peptide, Video About C-Peptide and Can C-Peptide Help People? What is C-Peptide and What Does C-Peptide have to do with Insulin and Diabetes Mellitus?

Other Uses of Measuring C-Peptide and Can C-Peptide Help People? What is C-Peptide and What Does C-Peptide have to do with Insulin and Diabetes Mellitus?

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Why use C-Peptide to measure Insulin production?

Does the Pancreas make Insulin or Something that becomes Insulin?

As you know Insulin in a hormone, a chemical manufactured by our body that works to control the blood glucose (a sugar) circulating in the blood. Too little glucose is bad, the brain needs glucose constantly and when you don't get it you faint or worse. On the other hand, too much glucose circulating in the blood can also make you dizzy, vomit or worse. Something called PROINSULIN is made by Beta cells in the pancreas.PROINSULIN then is broken up into Insulin and another chemical, C-Peptide.

Why is C-Peptide a Better Measure of Insulin than Insulin?

Suppose you want to know how well the pancreas is secreting or making Insulin. C-Peptide tends to be a BETTER marker of Insulin secretion than measuring Insulin because Insulin is cleared by the liver as well as having other things that can change the levels.



Insulin is part of the master control mechanism and Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen inside these tissues. So glycogen is a chemical that is a source of energy for the body as is fat.

What are Some More uses of C-Peptide Measurement?

Newly diagnosed diabetes patients often get their C-Peptide levels measured as a means of distinguishing type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. . Measuring C-Peptide in patients injecting synthetic Insulin can help to determine how much of their own natural Insulin these patients are still producing, or if they produce any at all.

Finding the cause of low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).

C-Peptide is also used for determining the possibility of gastrinomas (gastrinoma is a tumor in the pancreas or duodenum that secretes excess of gastrin leading to ulceration in the duodenum, stomach and the small intestine. There is hypersecretion of the HCl in the duodenum which causes the ulcers associated with Multiple Endocrine Neoplasm syndromes).

C-Peptide levels are checked in women with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) to determine degree of insulin resistance.

Does C-Peptide Do Anything Itself or Is It Just a byproduct of Insulin Manufacture?

"The possibility that C-Peptide may exert direct effects of its own was reevaluated in the early 1990s. A series of studies was undertaken involving administration of the peptide to patients with type 1 diabetes, who lack C-Peptide. This approach gave positive results, and it became apparent that replacement of C-Peptide in physiological concentrations resulted in significant improvements in several diabetes-induced functional abnormalities . These surprising findings prompted a renewed interest in C-Peptide physiology, and during the past 15 years, a steadily increasing number of reports on new aspects of C-Peptide physiology have emerged".