Endocrine Abstracts

Aims: A critical function of astrocytes is to recycle glutamate to neurons as glutamine to sustain glutamatergic neurotransmission. In the hypothalamus, this is required for effective counterregulatory hormone release in response to hypoglycaemia. However, after recurrent hypoglycaemia in vivo, this is attenuated. The aim of this study was to characterise how rat primary hypothalamic and cortical astrocytes adapt to recurrent low glucose (RLG) with repeated exposure t...

Improvements in circulating cytokine levels have occurred in patients with endometriosis and chronic heart disease when prescribed the type 2 diabetes (T2D) drug metformin. However it is unclear how metformin exerts these effects and whether or not they are related to antihyperglycaemic effects in T2D. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between anti-inflammatory and anti-hyperglycaemic effects of metformin in the liver, the main target tissue of the d...

Background: In diabetes, exposure to frequent episodes of hypoglycaemia diminishes a persons awareness of hypoglycaemia, by poorly defined mechanisms. Evidence suggests that, at least in part, changes in cell behaviour within the ventromedial hypothalamus may contribute to this defect and that changes in AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a key glucose-sensing enzyme are involved. Evidence suggests there are (mal)adaptations within neurons, however, little is known about cha...

Introduction: Pharmacological targeting of skeletal muscle to enhance metabolism through signalling pathways independent of insulin could be effective in treating metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. BI-9774 is an allosteric agonist which has been shown to have high potency in enhancing 5’ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity. The purpose of these experiments was to establish the effects of BI-9774 on AMPK signalling and mitocho...