glucose homeostasis Flashcards
glucose as an energy source
all tissues use glucose as their primary energy source, nut most can use other energy sources as well
- CNS can’t substitute glucose - delivery essential
what do we use to store glucose when blood glucose concentration is in excess
we can use glycogen to store glucose and this happens particularly in the liver and muscle
- this happens through a process known as glycogen synthesis .
- when glucose is in excess the glycogen synthase enzymes will become active and will start to make glycogen which will be stored mainly in the muscle and in the liver,
what happens when there is a lack of blood glucose concentration in the blood
we can produce glucose in the body and there’s two different ways of doing this.
It’s known as endogenous glucose production and it mainly occurs in the liver but it also happens in other tissues where you’ve got glycogen stored.
glycogenolysis
h involves two different enzymes glycogen phosphorylase and glycogen debranching enzyme
- What these enzymes do is break down that storage of glycogen to release glucose back into the blood.
gluconeogenesis
this occurs in the liver and the liver produces new molecules of glucose from its constituent parts.
normoglycaemia
a healthy person with normal blood glucose concentrations.
- In the fasted State is between four to six millimoles per liter of glucose in the blood.
- but after a meal the normal increase that you would see would be up to around eight or nine millimoles per liter.
○ that’s what we call the postprandial glucose concentration.
what happens if the blood glucose concentration gets too low
we develop a condition known as hypoglycemia
- and hypoglycemia is that if your blood glucose concentration goes below 3 millimoles per litre,
hyperglycaemia
if our blood glucose concentrations are not well controlled we can develop hyperglycemia
- and this is where the blood glucose concentrations are Sustained above 10 millimoles per litre.
- diagnosis of diabetes occurs once you reach 11 millimoles per liter and that is sustained.
where is glucose coming from and where is it going
the inputs to the glucose come from food intake, glucose uptake in the body, glucose production, and glucose reabsorption in the kidney as well (take in around 160g of glucose per day)
- and the things that help us to get rid of it are energy expenditure and glucose utilization by the body
- and then any excess glucose would be lost in the urine (only about 0.3g)
hormones which control blood glucose regulation
Insulin and glucagon and these hormones act on three key tissue types which are the liver and muscle and also the adipose tissue
why is adipose tissue important for gluconeogenesis
the adipose tissue is important because it’s able to break down to form the two ingredients that the body then uses to form new glucose.
too much insulin production
what would happen if you produce too much insulin, is that as well as pushing that person towards Normo glycemic, it could actually continue and mean that the person develops hypoglycemia
- and that is what happens in a rare disease called congenital hyperinsulinism
too much glucagon production
- if a person has low blood glucose concentrations glucagon will come along and attempt to raise the blood glucose concentrations, but if that persists for a long time or if you don’t get rid of the glucagon, It’s actually going to push that person from normal glycemia to hyperglycemia.
- And this is something that does occur in diabetes.
control of blood glucose - fasted situation
- you get a reduction in insulin secretion because there’s no glucose floating around
- we’ve also got an increase in glucagon secretion.
- the glucagon will act on the liver to increase endogenous glucose production. and that could be through the breakdown of glycogen or it could be through gluconeogenesis.
- And that will increase the blood glucose levels so that the brain tissues will get their glucose requirement.
control of blood glucose - fed situation
- in the FED situation the blood glucose concentration is going to increase to 6-8 millimoles per liter,
- trigger production of insulin by beta cells
- at the same time it will reduce the secretion of glucagon
- that insulin will then act on the insulin dependent or insulin sensitive tissues - so the muscle and adipose tissue and it will cause an increase of the uptake of glucose into those tissues, Thereby reducing the blood glucose concentration
glucagon-like peptide 1 hormone
- glp-1 is released from entero Endocrine cells in the gut which respond to meals passing through the system.
- glp-1 will go into the bloodstream and travel to the pancreas and hit on those pancreatic beta cells and increase the amount of insulin that’s being secreted.
gastric inhibitory peptide
also released from these entero Endocrine cells and will have other effects in the islets
- in particular it will affect the alpha cells to reduce glucagon secretion