Endocrine Abstracts

Hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose) is the most important acute side effect of insulin and insulin secretagogue therapies for diabetes mellitus. The initial response to a threat to the circulating glucose concentration is cessation of endogenous insulin and stimulation of pancreatic glucagon release – neither of which happen in insulin deficient diabetes. Patients with diabetes depend on other autonomic and most importantly symptomatic responses to defend against falls in b...

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Hypoglycaemia is one of the most common biochemical abnormalities observed in the neonatal, infancy and childhood periods. Despite the commonality there is still confusion about the definition and management of hypoglycaemia. Hypoglycaemia can be due to many causes (including endocrine and metabolic) in the neonatal, infancy and childhood period. For example hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia is the most severe form of hypoglycaemia in the neonatal period whereas ‘ketotic&#1...

After secretion from the pancreatic β cells, insulin exerts its pleiotropic effects by binding to its widely expressed cell surface receptor and triggering a cascade of intracellular signalling events, suppressing hepatic glucose production and inducing glucose uptake into fat and muscle among many other effects. Insulin is also cleared rapidly from the circulation, with a half-life of around 5 min, a process which is partly mediated by insulin receptor binding. This rapi...