PhD students participating in August Krogh seminars receive 0,2 ECTS per seminar
AKC seminar: Glucagon in the tug of war of blood glucose control: bench to bedside
Professor Patrik Rorsman FRS
OCDEM, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, Churchill Hospital, University of Oxford.
Abstract
Blood glucose is maintained by a continuous tug of war between the actions of insulin (lowering) and glucagon (increasing) that are secreted by the beta- and alpha-cells of the pancreatic islets, respectively.
Diabetes is caused by a lack of insulin, the impact of which is exacerbated by defects of glucagon secretion. Diabetes research has traditionally had a “beta-centric” perspective but recently there has been renewed interest in glucagon and the alpha-cells and diabetes is now often referred to as a “bihormonal disorder”.
In my lecture I will discuss the complex crosstalk between the islet cells in the healthy state and how it becomes disrupted in diabetes. In particular, I will consider the failure the alpha-cells to release enough glucagon at low glucose, which leads to an increased risk of the blood glucose concentration falling to dangerously low (even fatal) levels; some estimates suggest that this is the cause of 10% of the deaths in insulin-treated patients.
I will describe data gleaned from studies on mouse models of diabetes as well as human islets from donors with diabetes.
Finally, I will turn to the question of whether physiologically appropriate regulation of glucagon can be restored by repurposing of drugs already used in diabetes therapy.
Literature
Metabolic Messengers: glucagon. Patrick E MacDonald, Patrik Rorsman.
DOI: 10.1038/s42255-022-00725-3 XXX
The somatostatin-secreting pancreatic δ-cell in health and disease. Patrik Rorsman, Mark O Huising.
DOI: 10.1038/s41574-018-0020-6
Time
27 September 2024
14:00-15:00: Seminar and discussion
15:00-16:00: Post seminar servings and socializing
Venue
Auditorium 1, August Krogh Building, Universitetsparken 13, DK-2100 Copenhagen
Registration
Participation is free, but please register here.
For PhD students
PhD students participating in August Krogh seminars receive 0,2 ECTS per seminar
Contact
Kate Aiko Wickham, kawi@nexs.ku.dk
