Prevention of vascular and neural dysfunction in diabetic rats by C- peptide

C-peptide, a cleavage product from the processing of proinsulin to insulin, has been considered to possess little if any biological activity other than its participation in insulin synthesis. Injection of human C- peptide prevented or attenuated vascular and neural (electrophysiological) dysfunction and impaired Na⁺- and K⁺-dependent adenosine triphosphate activity in tissues of diabetic rats. Nonpolar amino acids in the midportion of the peptide were required for these biological effects. Synthetic reverse sequence (retro) and all-D-amino acid (enantio) C-peptides were equipotent to native C-peptide, which indicates that the effects of C-peptide on diabetic vascular and neural dysfunction were mediated by nonchiral interactions instead of stereospecific receptors or binding sites.