Glucagon, a hormone that raises blood glucose levels, is used to treat severe hypoglycemia. Glucagon is given as an aerosol in the nose or as a subcutaneous injection. If you're using insulin or a sulphonylurea to control diabetes, it's a good idea to carry a glucagon kit with you in case of emergency. With diabetes, the pancreas does not stop producing glucagon when you eat.
This can raise blood sugar levels too high after meals. Glucagon is a hormone produced by the pancreas that raises blood sugar levels. An artificial version is used as a medication to treat very low blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. A number of medications have been developed to help modify glucagon release in type 2 diabetes.
When blood glucose levels are low, glucagon is released and tells the liver to release glucose into the blood. Glucagon can also influence the way that amino acids (compounds that help build muscles and tissues in the body) produce glucose. There are two different classes of diabetes medications, DPP-4 inhibitors and incretin mimetics, which act in response to the presence of food to stimulate the rise of insulin and inhibit the release of glucagon. Three classes of drugs already available for clinical use address glucagon secretion abnormalities in type 2 diabetes, namely GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4i) inhibitors and amylin agonist pramlintide; it has been proposed that the glucagonostatic and insulinotropic effects of GLP-1RA also contribute to its hypoglycaemic efficacy. Beyond this paracrine regulation, glucagon secretion is influenced by autonomic factors that originate in the brain, where the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) is recognized as an important hypoglycemia detection area that can modulate glucagon release.
However, when a person with diabetes has low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia), their natural glucagon doesn't work as well. When a person without diabetes has low blood sugar, their natural glucagon starts working to increase their blood sugar level. In addition to the lack of the inhibitory tone that insulin exerts on glucagon release, other mechanisms have been investigated to explain the inappropriate increase in alpha cell function in diabetes type 2.Glucagon and insulin, another type of hormone, must work together to keep blood sugar levels in balance. In type 1 diabetes, high levels of circulating insulin can inhibit the release of glucagon in response to hypoglycemia.
Three classes of drugs already available for clinical use address glucagon secretion abnormalities in type 2 diabetes, namely GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4i) inhibitors, the enzyme that degrades GLP-1 (and other peptides and cytokines) and pramlintide, an amylin agonist. In 1948, Sutherland and de Duve defined the alpha cells of the islets of Langerhans as the source of glucagon, as well as the actions of this hormone that stimulate liver glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis under hypoglycemic conditions. In the physiopathology of type 2 diabetes, an imbalance in the ratio of beta cells to alpha cells, mainly due to beta cell apoptosis, has also been suggested as a mechanism that contributes to a decrease in the ratio of insulin to glucagon. If your child has diabetes, you can give the school nurse a glucagon kit to use in case of emergency. Normally, when blood sugar levels drop, glucagon kicks in and helps them return to healthy levels.
