Endocrine Abstracts

The activity of the vagus nerve is associated with a ‘rest and digest’ state, suggesting a central role in the regulation of energy homeostasis. The importance of the vagus nerve for cephalic responses to food intake, including the early release of insulin, is undisputed, and early experiments on rabbits by Claude Bernard almost 150 years ago have linked lesions in the dorsal vagal complex of the brainstem with diabetes mellitus. Similarly, many diabetic patients pre...

Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) acts as both a peripheral incretin hormone and a central neuropeptide to regulate glucose and energy homeostasis. Within the brain, GLP1 is synthesised by a discrete collection of neurones in the brainstem, and presynaptic release of GLP1 results in binding to postsynaptic GLP1 receptors (GLP1R). The pattern of projections from these GLP1 synthesising neurones in the mouse brain has been described previously1,2. Here we use a novel tra...

Glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is derived from selective cleavage of the preproglucagon (PPG) molecule synthesised in intestinal L-cells. The physiological action of GLP-1 is most commonly recognised as a peripherally released incretin, but a subset of neurons in the lower brainstem, the PPG neurons, also express GLP-1. The majority of PPG neuronal cell bodies are located in the nucleus of the solitary tract and their axons project to numerous sites throughout the CNS. Many o...