Clinical Chemistry, Vol 20, 610-612, Copyright © 1974 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry

Increased Uropepsinogen Excretion in Diabetes Mellitus

¹ Clinica Medica dell'Università di Catania, Ospedale Garibaldi, 95123 Catania, Italy.

The average value for 24-h excretion of uropepsinogen increased by 64% (P < 0.05) in 44 uncomplicated diabetics as compared to 33 normal subjects. Uropepsinogen excretion was correlated with the daily output of urine (r = 0.43, P < 0.05) in the normals, but not in the diabetics (r = 0.24, P > 0.10). This shows that the enhanced excretion in diabetics is not merely a result of increased urine output, and suggests that diabetes is an interfering factor that affects uropepsinogen excretion. No correlation was found with age (in normal persons or diabetics), duration of disease, fasting glycemic level, or daily insulin requirement. Because gastric secretion is depressed in persons with diabetes mellitus, the increased uropepsinogen excretion is tentatively attributed to alterations of gastric mucosa, known to occur in this disease, which might result in a change of the "exocrine-endocrine partition" of pepsinogen in favor of the "endocrine" fraction, i.e., the fraction that enters the blood.