Response to insulin by guinea-pig taenia coli.

Abstract

THE stimulating action of insulin on the metabolism of heart and striated muscle is well known, but the extent of its influence on smooth muscle is less clear and is variously assessed1–8. Preparations so far studied—such as aortic muscle5—7 and intestinal segments4—suffer from the disadvantage that they are damaged during preparation or, like uterine muscle1–3, have a highly individual endocrine response. Because of its ease of dissection and less specialized function, guinea-pig taenia coli muscle seemed an obvious tissue preparation with which to investigate the possible in vitro effects of insulin.