Interaction of Ethanol and Glipizide in Humans
- Svend G Hartling, MD,
- Ole K Faber, MD, PhD,
- Marie-Louise Wegmann, MD,
- Elisabeth Wåhlin-Boll, PhD and
- Arne Melander, MD, PhD
- Medical Department, Hørsholm Hospital Hørsholm
- Hagedorn Research Laboratory Gentofte, Denmark
- Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Lund University Health Sciences Centre Dalby, Sweden
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Ole K. Faber, MD, PhD, Medical Department, Hørsholm Hospital, DK-2970 Hørsholm, Denmark.
Abstract
The hypoglycemic effect of 2.5 mg glipizide and the potentiation of this effect by ethanol were studied in 10 normal-weight nondiabetic subjects. The reductions in blood glucose concentrations were similar in time of onset and extent (2 mM) whether glipizide was taken alone or in combination with ethanol. However, the return of blood glucose toward fasting level was delayed by ethanol. Β-Cell secretory activity, evaluated from the concentrations of insulin and C-peptide, was unchanged by ethanol. The serum glipizide concentrations were reproducible within subjects, whereas there was a considerable interindividual variation. This heterogeneity in the rise in glipizide concentration was strongly correlated with blood glucose fall and insulin secretion. Thus, ethanol can prolong but does not augment the hypoglycemia induced by glipizide. The heterogeneity in glipizide concentration seems to be caused by an interindividual variation in kinetics.
- Copyright © 1987 by the American Diabetes Association
