. Loss of entrainment of high-frequency plasma insulin oscillations in type 2 diabetes is likely a glucose-specific -cell defect. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 287: E50 -E54, 2004. First published March 2, 2004 10.1152/ ajpendo.00555.2003.-Spontaneous high-frequency insulin oscillations are easily entrainable to exogenous glucose in vitro and in vivo, but this property is lost in type 2 diabetes (2-DM). We hypothesized that this lack of entrainment in 2-DM would be specific to glucose. This was tested in nine control and ten 2-DM subjects. Serial blood sampling at 1-min intervals was carried out for 60 min in the basal state and for 120 min while small (1-60 mg/kg) boluses of arginine were injected intravenously at exactly 29-min intervals. Samples were analyzed for insulin concentrations, and time series analysis was carried out using spectral analysis. In control subjects, the mean period of basal plasma insulin oscillations was 10.3 Ϯ 1.3 min and was entrained by arginine to a mean period of 14.9 Ϯ 0.6 min (P Ͻ 0.00001 vs. basal). Similarly, in 2-DM subjects, spontaneous insulin oscillations were entrained by arginine; mean basal insulin period was 10.0 Ϯ 1.0 min and 14.5 Ϯ 1.8 min with arginine boluses (P Ͻ 0.00001). All of the primary peaks observed in spectral analysis were statistically significant (P Ͻ 0.05). Percent total power of primary peaks ranged from 17 to 68%. Thus arginine boluses entrain spontaneous high-frequency insulin oscillations in 2-DM subjects. This represents a distinct and striking difference from the resistance of the -cell to glucose entrainment in 2-DM. We conclude that loss of entrainment of spontaneous high-frequency insulin oscillations in 2-DM is likely a glucose-specific manifestation of -cell secretory dysfunction.-cell dysfunction ABNORMALITIES IN PULSATILITY of hormone secretion have been implicated in secretory dysregulation in many endocrine systems (32). High-frequency insulin oscillations, normally an example of a regular hormonal rhythm (5,8,10,14,15,17,24,25,30), are disturbed in disease. Abnormalities in oscillations take a number of different forms, including loss of regularity, a decrease or increase in amplitude, or an alteration in frequency (1,9,12,16,19,20). It has also been suggested that a loss of regularity in high-frequency plasma insulin oscillations might represent an early secretory defect that can be demonstrated before the development of diabetes (2,21,27).Spontaneous high-frequency insulin oscillations are easily entrainable to an exogenous rhythm by small changes in glucose concentration in vitro (4). In vitro studies using isolated rat islets demonstrated spontaneous high-frequency insulin oscillations that were easily entrained to the rhythm of glucose pulses delivered at a different frequency (4). In vivo, high-frequency plasma insulin oscillations are also entrainable with exogenous glucose (18, 23). However, in type 2 diabetic (2-DM) patients, there is a complete loss of entrainment to glucose stimulation (11, 18). The present study was des...