Relationship Between β-Cell Mass and Fasting Blood Glucose Concentration in Humans

36.5 5.3 kg/m 2 ). We only included people with type 2 diabetes who were not taking insulin or glucose-lowering oral medications, both of which would have influenced the measured blood glucose concentrations and the relationship of these with -cell volume. The relationship between fractional -cell volume and fasting blood glucose concentration was analyzed by nonlinear regression analysis to establish the best monoexponential fit of the relationship between the fasting blood glucose (dependent variable) and the -cell volume (independent variable); y span exp(k X) plateau and the point of inflection of the hyperbole. ANOVA was used to test for the effect of -cell volume on fasting blood glucose. RESULTS— There was a significant relationship between the -cell volume and fasting blood glucose concentration, with a point of inflection at x 1.1 0.1%. This relationship is curvilinear (Fig. 1) so that -cell deficiency beyond 1.1% is associated with a steep increase in blood glucose with each further decrement in -cell mass.