Vascular effects of insulin. A clinical physiologist's viewpoint

摘要

Insulin has long been considered the key hormone orchestrating glucose homeostasis. Subsequently, the effects of insulin on fat, protein and ion metabolism were recognized and thoroughly investigated. The beginning of the polypeptide hormone receptors era, with the discovery and the development of assays for the insulin receptor [1], gave a firm biological basis and an explanation to the growth-factor like effects of insulin. More or less at the same time, rather isolated, but provocative, reports started creeping in the scientific literature, in which gowth-factor like effects of insulin on the vessel wall were described [2]-