Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01275 (glucagon)
 26,492 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Sepsis is a major catabolic insult resulting in modifications in carbohydrate and fat energy metabolism, and leading to increased muscle breakdown and nitrogen loss. Insulin resistance, which develops in sepsis, decreases glucose utilization, but plasma insulin levels are sufficiently elevated to prevent lipolysis, resulting in a further energy deficit. The availability of fuels in sepsis is therefore limited, and the body resorts to muscle breakdown, gluconeogenesis, and amino acid oxidation for energy supply. Previous work has not defined, however, the exact alterations in amino acid metabolism. Therefore, the following studies were undertaken. Blood samples were drawn from fifteen patients in whom the diagnosis of sepsis was clinically established; the samples were analyzed for amino acid, beta-hydroxyphenylethanolamines, glucose, insulin and glucagon concentrations. The plasma amino acid pattern observed was characterized by an increase in total amino acid content, due mainly to high levels of the aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine and tyrosine) and the sulfur-containing amino acids (taurine, cystine and methionine). Alanine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid and proline were also elevated, but to a lesser degree. The branched chain amino acids (valine, leucine and isoleucine) were within normal limits, as were glycine, serine, threonine, lysine, histidine and tryptophan. Those patients who did not survive sepsis had higher levels of aromatic and sulfur-containing amino acids as compared to those patients surviving sepsis. On the other hand, those patients surviving sepsis had higher levels of alanine and the branched chain amino acids. In a second group of five patients with overwhelming sepsis accompanied by a state of metabolic encephalopathy, a parenteral nutrition solution consisting of 23% dextrose, and an amino acid formulation enriched with branched chain amino acids was administered. In these five patients, normalization of the plasma amino acid pattern and reversal of encephalopathy was observed. The following sequence of events may be postulated: The septic patient develops insulin resistance in the peripheral tissues, primarily muscle, while the adipose tissue is much less affected. The insulin resistance and the inability to utilize fat leads to increased muscle proteolysis. Muscle breakdown results in release into the blood of enormous amounts of various amino acids; the muscle itself is able to oxidize the branched chain amino acids, supplying the muscles' own energy requirements and alanine for gluconeogenesis. The extensive muscle proteolysis coupled with relative hepatic insufficiency occurring early in sepsis results in the appearance in the plasma of high levels of most of the amino acids present in muscle, particularly the aromatic and the sulfur-containing amino acids. The outcome of patients with sepsis might be positively affected by combined therapy with glucose, insulin and branched chain amino acids.
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PMID:Amino acid derangements in patients with sepsis: treatment with branched chain amino acid rich infusions. 9 98

Alanine and glutamine formation and release were studied using the intact epitrochlaris preparation of rat skeletal muscle. Epinephrine reduced the release of alanine and glutamine in a concentration-dependent manner. Measurable inhibition was observed at 10(-9) M epinephrine, and maximal inhibition was obtained at 10(-5) M. Norepinephrine also reduced alanine and glutamine formation and release but the concentration required for maximal inhibition was approximately 100-fold greater than for epinephrine. Isoproterenol (beta agonist), but not phenylephrine (alpha agonist), reproduced the effects of epinephrine, and propranolol (beta antagonist), but not phentolamine (alpha antagonist), blocked the effect of the catecholamine. N6,O2'-Dibutyryl adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate reproduced the effects of epinephrine and theophylline potentiated the effect of submaximal concentrations of the hormone. Glucagon and prostaglandin E2 had no observable effect on amino acid release. Insulin did not modify the inhibition of alanine and glutamine release produced by epinephrine. Alanine and glutamine formation from added precursor amino acids was unaffected by epinephrine or cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate. Epinephrine reduced alanine formation in muscles obtained from diabetic rats or animals treated with thyroxine or cortisone. These findings indicate that physiological levels of catecholamines reduce alanine and glutamine formation and release from skeletal muscle. This effect is mediated by a beta-adrenergic receptor and the adenylate cyclase system and can be accounted for by an inhibition of muscle protein degradation.
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PMID:Alanine and glutamine synthesis and release from skeletal muscle. IV. beta-Adrenergic inhibition of amino acid release. 17 62

The actions of insulin and glucagon in the fetal lamb and regulation of their secretion from the fetal pancreas have been examined to assess the possible roles of these hormones in regulating glucose homeostasis in the lamb during fetal life. Much evidence indicates that insulin stimulated glucose utilization in the fetal lamb and that glucagon can promote mobilization of fetal liver glycogen. Glucose stimulates and adrenaline inhibits insulin secretion by fetal pancrease pieces in vitro from 50 days gestation onwards, but alanine and glycine have little effect on insulin release. Alanine and glycine stimulate glucagon secretion by fetal pancreas pieces in vitro from 50 days gestation. The effects are potentiated by caffeine. Adrenaline has a small stimulatory effect but glucagon release is not altered by glucose. In vivo adrenaline infusion increases fetal plasma glucagon concentrations but glycine infusion does not. Glycine infusion into post-natal lambs increases plasma glucagon. Fasting pregnant ewes for two days decreases plasma insulin but does not alter plasma glucagon in either ewe or fetus. The observations suggest insulin secretion in the fetal lamb is an important determinant of glucose uptake and utilization by the fetus during at least the last third of pregnancy. The quantitative importance of glucagon in regulating fetal hepatic glucose metabolism remains uncertain.
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PMID:Glucagon, insulin and glucose homeostasis in the fetal lamb. 61 10

Blood glucose, plasma nonesterified fatty acids, amino acids, immunoreactive insulin, growth hormone, and immunoreactive glucagon responses to intravenous glucose were determined in 16 children on regular hemodialysis for chronic renal failure and nine healthy children. In the patients the fractional disappearance rate of glucose was significantly reduced, basal immunoreactive insulin was significantly raised, and while the early immunoreactive insulin response to glucose was similar in patients and controls, the late response was increased. Basal growth hormone was elevated in the patients and rose paradoxically following glucose. Fasting immunoreactive glucagon was significantly higher in the patients and was not suppressed by glucose. Plasma nonesterified fatty acid levels were lower in the patients and fell more markedly after glucose. Alanine levels, which were significantly raised in those with poor glucose tolerance, fell to normal after glucose and did not vary in those with more normal glucose tolerance. It is speculated that the metabolic and hormonal alterations may be interrelated and result from failure of normal glucose utilization.
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PMID:Hormonal and metabolic responses to intravenous glucose in children on regular hemodialysis. 70 40

Alanine (500 mg/kg body weight) was given orally to 27 healthy full term newborn infants, and the changes in blood glucose, pyruvate, lactate, alanine, glucagon and insulin were determined. Significant increments in blood glucose were found in 15 infants with blood glucose levels below 60 mg/100 ml, 4 of whom showed significant elevation of serum glucagon levels on day 1. This observation suggests that hepatic gluconeogenesis is possible immediately after birth.
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PMID:The effects of oral alanine administration on blood glucose, pyruvate, lactate, serum glucagon and insulin in human newborns. 88 46

Seven men ran at 60% of individual maximal oxygen uptake to exhaustion during beta-adrenergic blockade with propranolol (P), during lipolytic blockade with nicotinic acid (N), or without drugs (C). The total work times (83 +/- 9 (P), 122 +/- 8 (N), 166 +/- 10 (C) min, mean and SE) differed significantly. Epinephrine rose progressively above preexercise levels (0.06 +/- 0.01 ng/ml); at exhaustion concentrations in P experiments (2.15 +/- 0.41) were larger than in N (1.08 +/- 0.31) and C (0.72 +/- 0.28) experiments. Norepinephrine increased consistently while insulin decreased. After an initial decrease glucagon concentrations increased progressively in parallel with declining plasma glucose and were at exhaustion always three times preexercise values. Thus beta-adrenergic blockade did not diminish the glucagon response. Nor was this response increased when alpha-receptor stimulation in P experiments was intensified. Carbohydrate combustion was smaller and NEFA and glycerol concentrations in serum larger during C experiments. Alanine concentrations were never raised at exhaustion. Accordingly, neither stimulation of adrenergic receptors nor NEFA and alanine concentrations are major determinants for the exercise-induced glucagon secretion in man. It is suggested that decreased glucose availability enhances the secretion of glucagon and epinephrine during prolonged exercise.
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PMID:Glucagon and plasma catecholamines during beta-receptor blockade in exercising man. 93 21

Arterial blood concentrations of insulin, glucagon, and various substrates were determined in six anephric subjects in the postabsorptive state and immediately after hemodialysis. Plasma glucose and serum insulin concentrations were normal, and declined during dialysis. Plasma glucagon was elevated and remained unchanged. There was moderate hypertriglyceridemia before dialysis, but this decreased significantly after administration of heparin just before the start of dialysis, and at the end of dialysis was lowered further into the normal range. Comparison of postabsorptive whole blood concentrations of amino acids with those in normal, healthy adults revealed striking differences. Glutamine, proline, citrulline, glycine and both 1- and 3-methyl-histidines were increased, while serine, glutamate, tyrosine, lysine, and branched-chain amino acids were decreased. The glycine/serine ratio was elevated to 300% and tyrosine/phenylalanine ratio was lowered to 60% of normal. To investigate the potential role of blood cells in amino acid transport, the distribution of individual amino acids in plasma and blood cell compartments was studied. Despite a markedly diminished blood cell mass (mean hematocrit, 20.6 +/- 1.4%), there was no significant decrease in the fraction of most amino acids present in the cell compartment, and this was explained by increases of several amino acids in cellular water. None were decreased. Furthermore, during dialysis, whole blood and plasma amino acids declined by approximately 30% and 40%, respectively, whereas no significant change was observed in the cell compartment. Alanine was the only amino acid whose concentration declined in the cells as well as in plasma. The results indicate (a) significant alterations in the concentrations of hormones and substrates in patients on chronic, intermittent hemodialysis; (b) removal of amino acids during hemodialysis, predominantly from the plasma compartment, with no significant change in cell content; and (c) a redistribution of amino acids in plasma and blood cell compartments with increased gradients of most of the amino acids per unit cell water, by mechanism(s) as yet undetermined.
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PMID:Hormone-fuel concentrations in anephric subjects. Effect of hemodialysis (with special reference to amino acids). 93 88

Although the stimulatory effect of glucagon on gluconeogenesis has been well demonstrated in certain systems in vitro, this effect has never been established in man. The present study was undertaken, therefore, to determine whether glucagon could stimulate gluconeogenesis from alanine in normal fasting man. Glucagon might stimulate this process by increasing the hepatic alanine uptake and/or by shunting the extracted alanine within the liver into the gluconeogenic pathway. In order to be able to examine these two aspects of gluconeogenesis, we combined the hepatic vein-brachial artery catheterization technic with an istopic infusion of alanine-14C. Alanine-14C specific activity was measured in whole blood and plasma by use of a rapid chromatographic technic. Since plasma contributed 93 per cent of the alanine extracted by the splanchnic bed with a specific activity three times that of the red blood cells, plasma alanine specific activity was used to study the conversion of alanine to glucose. A constant infusion of alanine-14C achieved a relatively stable arterial specific activity by forty minutes. The administration of glucagon by constant infusion (15-50 ng./kg./min.) had no affect on thf splanchnic extraction of alanine. Net splanchnic glucose-14C production, however, doubled during the glucagon infusion, and the conversion of alanine to glucose increased from 30 plus or minus 2 to 58 plus or minus 9 mumol/min. These data (1) demonstrate that in normal man fasted twelve to fourteen hours, glucagon at supraphysiologic levels can double the rate of gluconeogenesis from alanine and (2) indicate that this stimulatory effect of glucagon is exerted within the liver by shunting the extracted alanine toward new glucose formation rather than by increasing the hepatic extraction of alanine.
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PMID:Gluconeogenesis from alanine in normal postabsorptive man. Intrahepatic stimulatory effect of glucagon. 114 May 13

Plasma glucose, glucagon, and insulin responses to oral feedings of L-alanine were assessed in 44 healthy term infants during the first three days of life. Alanine administration produced significant increases in glucagon and glucose concentrations on day 1, but not on days 2 and 3. These increases occurred within 30 minutes (mean and SEM for glucagon, 127 plus or minus 7 to 219 plus or minus 16 pg/ml, P smaller than 0.001; glucose, 45 plus or minus 3 to 60 plus or minus 7 mg/100 ml, P smaller than 0.01) and persisted at the P smaller than 0.05 level at four hours. Responsiveness to alanine seemed to be related to the baseline blood glucose levels since constant infusions of glucose inhibited the response; These results indicate that the pancreatic islet alpha cell secretion mechanism(s) is functioning in the newborn.
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PMID:The effect of oral alanine on blood glucose and glucagon in the human newborn infant. 116 64

The influence of theophylline ethylenediamine (100 mg/kg i.p.) on gluconeogenesis was studied in normal and in adrenodemedullated and reserpinized rats after overnight fasting by measuring the time-course of Alanine-14C incorporation into Glucose-14C. In the normal rat, theophylline produced a moderate hyperglycemia associated with an increased conversion of alanine to glucose at all time intervals. In addition, a marked rise of plasma levels of insulin and glucagon was observed. In sympathetctomized rats, plasma glucose and gluconeogenesis were again enhanced by theophylline, but the pattern of these modifications differed from that of normal rats since the peak values occurred earlier. Subsequently, both parameters rapidly declined reaching values lower than controls at the end of the experiment. Insulin response to theophylline was higher in sympathectomized animals in comparison to normal rats, while glucagon response was approximately of the same magnitude in the two groups. From these findings it was concluded that theophylline is able to stimulate gluconeogenesis from alanine both in the normal and sympathectomized rat. The different pattern of alanine conversion to glucose seems to depend on the different participation of insulin and catecholamines in the two groups.
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PMID:Theophylline stimulation of gluconeogenesis from alanine in normal and sympathectomized rats. 124 88


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