The Endocrine Pancreas 1 Flashcards
What is meant by the steady state?
Body energy = energy intake (food) - energy output
What centres impact the amount of eating?
Feeding centre promotes feelings of hunger and drive to eat
Satiety centres promotes feelings of fullness by suppressing the feeding centre
What is activity in both feeding centre and satiety centre controlled by?
Complex balance of neural and chemical signals as well as concentration of nutrients in plasma
What are the 2 theories about food intake?
Glucostatic theory
Lipostatic theory
What is the glucostatic theory?
- food intake determined by blood glucose
- as [BG] increases the drive to eat decreases
- -feeding centre, +satiety centre
What is the lipostatic theory?
- food intake determined by fat stores
- as fat stores increase the drive to eat decreases
- -feeding centre, +satiety centre
What is a hormone released by fat stores that suppreses the activity of feeding centre?
Leptin
What are the 3 categories of energy output?
Cellular work
Mechanical work
Heat loss
What are examples of cellular work?
- transporting molecules across membranes
- growth and repair
- storage of energy (such as fat, glycogen, ATP synthesis)
What are examples of mechanical work?
Movement, either on a large scale using muscles or intracellularly
What is heat loss associated with, and how much of total energy output does in use?
Associated with cellular and mechanical work
Accounts for half our energy output
What is metabolism?
Integration of all biochemical reactions in the body
What are the 3 elements of metabolism?
- extract energy from nutrients in food
- store energy
- utilise energy for work
What are anabolic pathways?
- build up
- net effect is synthesis of large molecules from smaller ones
- usually for storage purposes
What are catabolic pathways?
- breakdown
- net effect is degradation of large molecules into small ones
- releasing energy for work
What state do we enter after eating?
- absorptive state
- ingested nutrients supply the energy needs of the body and excess is stored
- this is an anabolic phase
Is the absorptive state an anabolic or catabolic phase?
Anabolic phase
What state is entered between meals and overnight?
- post-absorptive state (fasted state)
- rely on body stores for energy
- this is a catabolic phase
Is the post-absorptive phase anabolic or catabolic?
Catabolic
The brain is known as an ‘obligatory glucose utiliser’, what does this mean?
It has first ‘dibs’ at glucose
What does failure to maintain [BG] in the post-absorptive state lead to?
Hypoglycaemia which can lead to coma and death
How is BG maintained during the post-absorptive state?
Synthesising glucose from glycogen (glycogenolysis) or amino acids (gluconeogenesis)
What is glycogenolysis?
Synthesising glucose from glycogen
What is gluconeogenesis?
Synthesising glucose from amino acids
What is the only organ that has access to glucose when it falls below the normal range?
The brain
What is the normal range of [BG]?
4.2-6.3mM (80-120mg/dL)
5mmoles is useful to remember
What is hypoglycaemia?
Plasma glucose concentration falls below 3mM
When does hypoglycaemia occur?
When [BG] falls below 3mM