Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0011849 (diabetes)
 277,896 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

1. Glucokinase is one of four glucose phosphorylating enzymes present in rat liver. Its distinctive features are a high K-m for glucose (high-K-m isozyme) and a rather narrow substrate specificity. In contrast, the other three enzymes, collectively called hexokinases or low-K-m isozymes, exhibit low K-m values for glucose and a wider substrate specificity. 2. Glucokinase is present in the liver os mammals (with some exceptions), amphibians and lower reptiles; It is absent from higher reptiles and birds. The presence or absence of glucokinase may represent an evolutionary adaptation to feeding habits and other physiological peculiarities. Differences in the immunological behavior and in the kinetic parameters of glucokinases from different taxa suggest the operation of divergent evolution. 3. The levels of glucokinase in rat liver depend strictly on the supply of carbohydrate in the diet. Glycogen phosphorylase and glycogen synthetase behave similarly, whereas other carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes depend on the provision of either protein or protein plus carbohydrate. Glucokinase decays with a half-life of 33 hr when rats are starved or fed a carbohydrate-free diet, and is induced by the administration of glucose. The adaptive character is not exhibited by all mammals, indicating evolutionary discrimination within the same class and even within the same single order Rodentia. Enzyme adaptation in the liver may partially explain the condition known as 'hunger diabetes'. 4. The endocrine system plays a paramount role in glucokinase adaptation, since insulin is essential for glucose-dependent glucokinase induction and, on the other hand, glucagon, catecholamines and cyclic AMP prevent the induction. Glucocorticoids and some pituitary hormones modulate the rate of induction. The mechanisms underlying the hormonal regulation of glucokinase levels are not well known. 5. The variations in liver glucokinase correspond to changes in the amount of enzyme protein as assessed by immunochemical titration. This fact agrees with the effects of inhibitors of protein synthesis on glucokinase induction. 6. An antiserum against rat glucokinase reacts with the enzyme from mammals and turtles but not with the amphibian enzyme. It does not react with low-K-m hexokinases from different sources. 7. The saturation function for glucose is sigmoidal in mammalian and amphibian glucokinases but not in glucokinase from lower reptiles. The Hill's coefficient is very constant with values about 1.6. The K0.5 (concentration for half saturation) values in the different species studied vary between 1.5 and 8 mM. These kinetic parameters may be considered as another adaptive feature aimed to give maximal efficiency to the liver uptake of glucose at the changeable concentrations in the blood resulting from variations in the amount of dietary glucose.
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PMID:Adaptive character of liver glucokinase. 16 20

Glycogen accumulates in human fetal liver beginning at the eighth week of gestation. A parallel increase in total glycogen synthase activity is found, although the I-form activity remains low and constant throughout the first two thirds of gestation. Total phosphorylase activity increases slightly during this period, with the proportion in the active form amounting to about one half of the total throughout. After an initial rapid decline, the glycogen concentration in explants of human fetal liver remained constant for twenty to forty hours at about 20 per cent of the in vivo level. Incubation with glucagon, cyclic AMP (adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate) or its dibutyryl derivative markedly reduced tissue glycogen concentrations while insulin brought about a small increase. The effect of maximal doses of dibutyryl cyclic AMP and glucagon were the same, and the combination of agents produced no further effect. The response to dibutyryl cyclic AMP was apparent by one hour and maximal by three to six hours, whereas the response to insulin required about six hours to be detected, and it continued for at least eighteen hours. Insulin antagonized the glycogenolytic effect of low doses of glucagon or theophylline but was without significant effect in the presence of high glucagon concentrations. Glucagon stimulated cyclic AMP output from explants, and this effect was further augmented by theophylline. Insultin had no consistent effect on cyclic AMP output in either the presence or the absence of glucagon or theophylline. Incubation with dibutyryl cyclic AMP resulted in a decrease of glycogen synthase I-form activity, while insulin tended to increase this enzyme activity. In neither circumstance was the proportion of active phosphorylase altered. These results suggest that the regulation of glycogen levels in human fetal liver by cyclic AMP, glucagon, and insulin may entail alterations in the activity of glycogen synthase activity without necessitating alterations in phosphorylase activity. Cyclic AMP or glucagon was capable of depleting tissue glycogen stores in tissue from fetuses of six weeks' gestation. Insulin increased tissue glycogen concentrations in tissue from fetuses of seven or more weeks.
Diabetes 1975 Dec
PMID:Hormonal regulation of glycogen metabolism in human fetal liver. I. Normal development and effects of dibutyryl cyclic AMP, glucagon, and insulin in liver explants. 17 97

Peripheral nerves of diabetic rats were studied 2 years after alloxan injection. We observed demyelination and remyelination, axonal degeneration and regeneration, reduplication of basal laminae around vessels and Schwann's cells, as well as onion bulb formation by proliferated Schwann's cells. Crystalline deposits composed of aggregates of fibrillary electron dense material often occurred in vessel walls and endoneurium of diabetic animals but rarely were seen in nerves from age-matched control animals. Glycogen accumulated in myelinated and unmyelinated axons within mitochondria. Axoplasmic inclusions resembling Lafora's bodies and the inclusions of glycogenosis type IV were frequent and often were accompanied by deposits of particulate glycogen. The findings suggest that the neuropathy in alloxan diabetes is caused by metabolic impairment of anxons, Schwann's cells, and vessels, leading to segmental demyelination and axonal degeneration.
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PMID:Alloxan diabetic neuropathy: electron microscopic studies. 18 54

Skeletal muscle cyclic AMP (cAMP) content and glycogen synthesis were investigated in male rats subjected to exhaustive exercise, alloxan diabetes, and combinations of these conditions. After an exhaustive swim or control treatment of wading, randomly selected animals were administered 500 mg glucose via stomach tube. Two hours after glucose administration, gastrocnemius glycogen levels rose from 1.31 to 10.67 mg/g wet wt in fatigued nondiabetics (FND), producing a 94% supercompensation above control values. Glycogen of fatigued diabetics (FD) increased from 0.88 to 4.21 mg/g wet wt during the first 2 hr after glucose administration and did not reach control values for 24 h. In conjunction with these glycogen changes, cAMP increased from 1.23 to 2.59 and 1.47 to 2.81 pmol/mg wet wt for FND and FD, respectively (P less than 0.05). No difference in cAMP levels between diabetics and nondiabetics was found. These in vivo data suggest that insulin may not be essential for muscle glycogen synthesis, but that after glycogen depletion it plays a prominent role in supercompensation. Also, this hormone's mechanism of action in skeletal muscle does not appear to be mediated through alteration in the tissue cAMP concentration.
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PMID:Role of insulin during exercise-induced glycogenesis in muscle: effect on cyclic AMP. 20 69

Glycogen was determined histochemically and biochemically in the placenta of female rats with alloxan diabetes induced in sexually immature animals, including the placenta of rats treated with sulfamides before the occurrence of pregnancy. Histochemical studies were carried out on 18, and biochemical on 38 Wistar rats. Glycogen content in the mature placenta before labour was greater in animals with manifest alloxan diabetes than in healthy rats. This increase of glycogen granules took place on account of their increase both in the glycogen cells, and, extracellularly, in the spongious zone. A significant increase of glycogen content in the placenta in manifest and latent diabetes was also demonstrated by biochemical methods; as to "prediabetic" rats--elevation of glycogen content in their placenta was insignificant in comparison with control. In diabetes compensated with sulfamides glycogen content in glycogen cells changed differently: there was a disappearance of extracellular glycogen from the spongious zone, and numerous glycogen granules (determined in healthy rats and in those with alloxan diabetes in insignificant amount) appeared in the labyrinth.
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PMID:[Glycogen content in the placenta of rats in experimental diabetes]. 46 86

Chronic oral treatment of male diabetic Chinese hamsters with 100 mg/kg/day 5-methoxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (MICA) causes a depression of blood glucose in fasted animals and an improvement in the glucose profile in fed animals. Glycogen levels in the liver and body weight are decreased. Treated animals die at a higher rate than do controls. It is concluded that treatment with a potent inhibitor of gluconeogenesis like MICA will not provide a useful tool in managing diabetes.
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PMID:Metabolic effects and mortality rate in diabetic Chinese hamsters after long-term treatment with 5-methoxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (MICA). 98 12

To study whether impaired activation of muscle glycogen synthase represents an early defect in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), we quantitated rates of nonoxidative glucose metabolism and measured activities of glycogen synthase and phosphorylase and concentrations of free glucose and glucose-6-phosphate in muscle biopsies, obtained before and after a euglycemic insulin clamp, in 16 NIDDM patients, 18 first-degree relatives of NIDDM patients, and 16 nondiabetic control subjects. Insulin-stimulated glucose storage (20.1 +/- 1.5 and 11.6 +/- 1.7 vs. 27.9 +/- 1.7 mumol.kg-1 lean body mass [LBM].min-1, P less than 0.01-0.001 [3.6 +/- 0.3 and 2.1 +/- 0.3 vs. 5.0 +/- 0.3 mg.kg-1 LBM.min-1] and glycogen synthase activity, measured at 0.1 mM glucose-6-phosphate concentration (11.3 +/- 1.3 and 11.6 +/- 1.3 vs. 18.3 +/- 2.0 nmol.min-1.mg-1 protein, P less than 0.01), were impaired in relatives and diabetic subjects compared with control subjects. Glycogen synthase activity correlated with the rate of glucose storage (r = 0.53, P less than 0.001). Glycogen phosphorylase fractional activity did not differ among the groups. Apart from increased intramuscular basal glucose concentrations in NIDDM patients, no consistent differences were observed in free glucose and glucose-6-phosphate concentrations between the groups. We conclude that impaired activation of muscle glycogen synthase by insulin is observed in patients with a genetic risk of developing NIDDM and may represent an early defect in the pathogenesis of NIDDM.
Diabetes 1992 May
PMID:Impaired activation of glycogen synthase in people at increased risk for developing NIDDM. 156 29

Sulfonylureas are widely used drugs in the treatment of NIDDM when diet treatment is unsuccessful. In addition to their pancreatic effects sulfonylureas have been reported to have insulin-like and insulin-potentiating actions in vitro with respect both to glucose transport and glycogen synthase activation in isolated adipocytes and hepatocytes from rats. Glycogen synthesis in muscle accounts for the major part of non-oxidative glucose metabolism during insulin stimulation. Treatment with gliclazide of patients with NIDDM has been shown to be associated with a potentiation of both insulin-mediated glucose disposal and insulin-stimulated glycogen synthase activity in skeletal muscle. Muscle insulin receptor binding or insulin receptor kinase activity was shown not to be affected by gliclazide treatment. Whether the improved insulin sensitivity and improved insulin action on skeletal muscle glycogen synthase during gliclazide treatment is due to a direct or an indirect action of the drug is discussed.
Diabetes Res Clin Pract 1991
PMID:Gliclazide and insulin action in human muscle. 179 67

Glycogen content in the normal placenta decreases gradually towards term. However, in human diabetes and in rat streptozotocin diabetes two- to tenfold increases in placental glycogen level were found during the pregnancy. This elevation was evident in rats per tissue weight, protein or DNA content and was also seen in insulin-treated and gestational diabetics. Electron microscopic investigation of diabetic rat placenta revealed glycogen deposition in the typical glycogen cells, also in junctional zone cells and in all cells of the placental labyrinth. Placental glycogen accumulation in diabetes occurs in marked contrast to other tissues, such as maternal liver, from which glycogen disappears. Liver and muscle glycogenesis and glycogenolysis are under insulin control, by regulation of the activities of glycogen synthase and phosphorylase. However, in the placenta these enzymes are not meaningfully influenced by insulin in in vivo and in vitro studies. In our and other laboratories the activities of both enzymes somewhat increased or decreased, showing no trend conducive to glycogen accumulation. Placenta is glucose dependent, but the role of insulin in its carbohydrate metabolism is doubtful. Despite the high placental concentration of insulin receptors no metabolic outcome has yet been pointed out. Glycogen accumulation in the placenta of diabetic rats was found to be related to the extent of maternal hyperglycemia. The resultant markedly increased intracellular level of glucose-6-phosphate accelerates glycogen synthesis b. Glucose itself activates glycogen synthase and deactivates glycogen phosphorylase. Continuous glucose infusion to non-diabetic pregnant rats on gestation days 18-21 likewise also caused an increase in placental glycogen in correlation with hyperglycemia. The possibility that placental glycogen is under the control of fetal rather than maternal insulin was explored by producing insulin deficiency through intrafetal streptozotocin injection. There was no effect of fetal "diabetes" on placental glycogen synthesis or on the distribution of placental glycogen between the maternal and fetal segments of the placenta, while it caused a marked decrease in the fetal liver glycogen content and fetal body weight. To assess the availability of placental glycogen as an energy source the placental glycogenolysis was investigated after hormonal stimulation. Catecholamines were effective in inducing lactate formation both in vivo and in vitro in nondiabetic and diabetic rats. Protracted activation of the adenylate cyclase system by cholera toxin administration pronouncedly reduced placental glycogen in vivo.
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PMID:Placental glycogen metabolism in diabetic pregnancy. 183 20

With radiotracer and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (13C-NMR) methods, we studied the time course of glycogen resynthesis after three 90-s episodes of hypoxemia in both control and diabetic rats in vivo. Glycogen synthesis was measured in the presence and absence of infused insulin and compared with the changes in glycogen synthase (GS) and phosphorylase activities. We observed in 13C-NMR spectra the expected mobilization of glycogen during hypoxia in vivo. In control rats with or without exogenous insulin, this was followed by a rapid resynthesis of glycogen during a 40-min recovery period. A marked activation of GS was observed by 10 min (glucose-6-phosphate-independent form of GS [GSl] = 0.65 mumol.min-1.g-1 or 92% of total GS), and activation persisted up to 40 min in both groups. Glycogen synthesis during the recovery period averaged 0.51 and 0.45 mumol.min-1.g-1 in the saline- and insulin-treated rats, respectively. In the diabetic rats by 10 min after hypoxemia, GSl increased only modestly in both saline-treated (0.16 mumol.min-1.g-1) and insulin-treated (0.21 mumol.min-1.g-1) rats, and activation persisted up to 40 min only with insulin treatment. Glycogen synthesis was slower in the diabetic rats given insulin (0.28 mumol.min-1.g-1) and essentially absent in the saline-treated rats (0.03 mumol.min-1.g-1) compared with controls. We conclude that recovery from hypoxemia is accompanied by a marked activation of GSl and rapid rates of glycogen synthesis in nondiabetic rats, and diabetes markedly blunts this response. Acute insulin infusion only partially overcomes this block.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Diabetes 1991 Mar
PMID:Hypoxemic stimulation of heart glycogen synthase and synthesis. Effects of insulin and diabetes mellitus. 190 Feb 48


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