Accordingly, the analysis of the glucagon/insulin ratio in all groups tested showed a trend to increase with respect to the corresponding ratio observed at 0 min; this increase was statistically significant after 60 min ( p < 0.05) of 100 mg/Kg D-Pinitol ( Figure 2 A) dose, and after 120 min ( p < 0.05) of 500 mg/Kg dose of D-Pinitol ( Figure 2 B).
In contrast, examination of the plasma levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is known to inhibit the insulin secretion in pancreatic ß-cells in vivo [ 34 ], showed that 100 mg/Kg dose of D-Pinitol was able to increase significantly the levels of ghrelin in plasma as soon as 10 min ( p < 0.01) after D-Pinitol load, with a clear trend to maintain the levels of ghrelin above the baseline levels in plasma ( Figure 7 ).