When people talk about diabetes, they usually also talk about insulin.
When people talk about diabetes, they usually also talk about insulin. Diabetes is a disease that affects millions of people around the world; insulin is a hormone that helps control this disease. Now a third term could soon be joining the conversation: glucagon.
Glucagon has long been seen as a hormone whose sole purpose was to counteract insulin's effect. However, Jennifer Estall, a researcher at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) and at Université de Montréal, is challenging this dogma.
In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), her team unravels an adaptive mechanism involved in controlling insulin action, showing that glucagon plays a crucial part in it and can thus be a protective asset.
Two opposite hormones
Diabetes occurs when the body is no longer able to store glucose, which can cause blood sugar levels to become too high. Over time, it can lead to serious complications. Diabetes was considered a fatal disease until 1922, when Canadian researchers identified insulin and started using it as a treatment.
Read more at University of Montreal
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