A c-peptide test measures the amount of peptide in your body. Doctors use c-peptide tests to monitor your body's insulin production and to help determine the cause of your low blood sugar. C-peptide, short for connecting peptide insulin, is a short chain of amino acids. Medical laboratories measure your c-peptide through a blood or 24-hour urine test. This laboratory test does not determine whether you have diabetes, but it does indicate how well your pancreas produces insulin in response to the food you eat in your daily diet.
Physiology
In response to a meal, beta cells in your pancreas split proinsulin molecules into insulin and c-peptide. Your liver removes the insulin from your bloodstream in about five minutes. Your kidneys remove c-peptide about a half an hour after you eat. Your doctor may order a c-peptide test along with a fasting blood sugar to give her a better picture of how well your body is dealing with the glucose in food.
Type 1 Diabetes
Insulin helps your tissue cells take up blood sugar. If you have type 1 diabetes, you must be on insulin therapy because your pancreas does not produce sufficient insulin to facilitate insulin uptake. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune diseases that results in the almost complete destruction of the cells in your pancreas most responsible for insulin production, known as beta cells. Your doctor will use a c-peptide test to measure the health of your pancreatic beta cells to help you determine how much exogenous insulin you will need to cause uptake of the glucose you ingest in meals and snacks.
Type 2 Diabetes
Doctors may prescribe oral drugs if you have type 2 diabetes, in a therapy designed to either stimulate your pancreas so it manufactures more insulin or to make your cells more sensitive to insulin uptake resulting in lower blood sugars after eating. Insulin therapy and pancreatic stimulation leads to beta cell damage which, over time, will degrade pancreatic processes to the point where you cannot make the insulin you need to process the sugars in your diet. Your doctor uses the c-peptide tests to measure insulin to establish the extent of beta cell damage. The c-peptide test will help your doctor determine when to start insulin therapy to help your body absorb the glucose you consume in your diet.
Usage of C-peptide Tests
Physicians often order c-peptide tests for patients with known or suspected diabetes. People with diabetes must maintain healthy diets that restrict intake of sugars and starches. The "European Journal of Clinical Nutrition" reported in 2011 that study participants that ate a diet high in mono-unsaturated fatty acids had lower c-peptide levels than participants that consumed the other types of diets included in the study. These other diets included fatty acids, palm oil, industrial trans fatty acids and partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
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