Arginine induced secretion of insulin and glucagon in rats with experimental hyperammonemia

The present results agree with earlier reports that arginine stimulates in vivo release of insulin and glucagon in rats. Recently reported that ammonia provoked isolated rat islets to initially release a spike of glucagon but following this the arginine-induced release of glucagon was inhibited. In the present in vivo study, however, increased circulating ammonia did not change the basal concentration of plasma glucagon (not shown) nor the ability of arginine to stimulate glucagon release. We cannot explain the apparent lack of agreement in the results of these two studies with present evidence.