The Staub-Traugott Phenomenon (or Staub-Traugott Effect) is the premise that a normal subject fed
glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
will rapidly return to normal levels of
blood glucose
The blood sugar level, blood sugar concentration, blood glucose level, or glycemia is the measure of glucose concentrated in the blood. The body tightly blood sugar regulation, regulates blood glucose levels as a part of metabolic homeostasis ...
after an initial spike, and will see improved reaction to subsequent glucose feedings.
History
A. T. B. Jacobson determined in 1913 that
carbohydrate
A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...
ingestion results in blood glucose fluctuations. Hamman and Hirschman first reported improvement of carbohydrate tolerance following repeated glucose administration in 1919. H. Staub in 1921 and K. Traugott in 1922 subsequently confirmed the improved reaction in healthy subjects and the phenomenon was named for them.
Mechanism
Abraira and Lawrence describe the original discovery as being that "when glucose loads are given in succession, orally or intravenously, significant and progressive improvement in glucose tolerance will occur in normal and
nonketotic diabetic
Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...
subjects. This facilitated disposal of a glucose load is known as the Staub-Traugott phenomenon."
This phenomenon drew considerable interest as it was demonstrated that the ingested glucose was still being processed by the gut at the same rate while being cleared much more rapidly in the bloodstream. "It is not surprising that when a large amount of readily diffusible glucose is suddenly introduced into the alimentary tract the rate of absorption should exceed the rate at which the tissues can abstract it from the blood. But it is not so clear why the curve should again fall to normal as rapidly as it often does at a time when the rate of absorption from the gut can be scarcely diminished."
Various mechanisms were hypothesized involving the
liver
The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...
and
insulin
Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...
. It was determined in 2009 that "enhanced potentiation of
insulin response and increased suppression of
hepatic glucose production /nowiki>glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis">glycogenolysis.html" ;"title="/nowiki>glycogenolysis">/nowiki>glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis] are the main mechanisms underlying the Staub-Traugott effect", meaning that the liver slows its release of glucose into the bloodstream and the existing insulin becomes better at clearing glucose from the bloodstream with each dose of glucose administered.
Exceptions and limitations
This effect has been observed to disappear under conditions of starvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, below the level needed to maintain an organism's life. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, de ...
and in hypopituitary patients.
References
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Blood tests
Diabetes-related tests