Insulin Flashcards
what is it called if the concentration of glucose in the blood is too low
hypoglycaemia
what is it called if the concentration of glucose in the blood is too high
hyperglycaemia
what is the normal range of glucose
- The normal range is between 3.5-5.5 mmol/L
where can glucose be stored
- liver
- skeletal muscle
- adipose tissue
what is the role of insulin
- released when glucose is too high, it is to make sure that glucose is stored in the cells
what form is glucose stored in
glycogen
what forms the endocrine part of the pancreas
islet of langhernas
what cells are the inslet of langerhans produced from and what do they produce
- Alpha cells producing glucagon
- Beta cells producing insulin
- Delta cells producing somatostatin
- PP cells producing pancreatic
- polypeptide
- Epsilon cells producing ghrelin
These cells help control each other and communicate with each other
name two jobs of the pancreas
- Regulation of insulin secretion to promote glucose storage after meals
- Regulation of glucose output from the liver during fasting
describe the structure of insulin
- polypeptide
- two polypeptide chains linked by three disulphide linkages
- the alpha chain is made out of 21 amino acids and the beta chain is made out of 30 amino acids
- monomers tend to form dimers when insulin concentration increase s
- in the presence of zinc ion and at specific pH dimers form hexamers
what is the storage for of insulin
- In the presence of Zn2+ and at specific pH dimers form hexamers (storage form of insulin)
how is insulin synthesis regulated
- Transcription from the insulin gene
- mRNA stability
- mRNA translation
- post translation modifications
- secretion
insulin synthesis and secretion are….
- insulin synthesis and insulin secretion are largely independent
describe the synthesis of inulin
- insulin is initially synthesized as preproinsulin in pancreatic B cells
- About 5–10 min after its assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum, preproinsulin is processed into proinsulin
- Proinsulin undergoes maturation into active insulin through the action of cellular endopeptidases within the Golgi apparatus
- Endopeptidases cleave off C peptide from insulin by breaking the bonds between lysine 64 and arginine 65, and between arginine 31 and 32, when the proinsulin is cleaved the chains are called chain A and chain B
- Insulin and C-peptide are then stored
- awaiting secretion
for each molecule of insulin you produce you also produce …
a molecular of C peptide
describe the mechanism of insulin secretion
- Glucose enters the β-cells through the glucose transporter
- Glucokinase converts glucose into glucose 6-phosphate (this means that there is an increase in ATP in the cell) acts as the glucose sensor for insulin secretion
- the ATP is generated via the pyruvate through the Krebs cycle and with the electron transport chain, this generates ATP which leads to a rise in the ATP:ADP ratio within the cell
- a rise in ATP causes the ATP sensitive potassium channel to close
- this creates a depolarisation of the membrane
- because of this depolarisation the voltage gated calcium channel ion opens
- this increases the intracellular concentration of calcium
- calcium causes granules containing insulin to move to the membrane
- this then causes the release of insulin by exocytosis
when is insulin secretion only activated
- when glucose is higher in the blood that normal
- The Km of the glucose carrier and of glucokinase ensures that initiation of insulin secretion by glucose occurs only when glucose levels exceed ~5 mM
describe the phases of insulin secretion
- The first phase release is rapidly triggered in response to increase blood glucose level
- The second phase is sustained slow release of newly formed vesicles