New findings on glucagon synthesis

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown that the cells that produce glucagon are stimulated by the hormone itself. A previous study by the same group demonstrated that this principle also applies to insulin. This means that a feedback system is at work in the body, whereby hormone secreting cells receive an immediate signal to produce more of the hormone. While insulin is a hormone that lowers the level of glucose in the blood, glucagon is a hormone that increases it. Associate Professors Barbara and Ingo Leibiger and Per-Olof Berggren at Karolinska Institutet have already published results showing that the insulin-producing cells are activated by the very hormone they release. Whether this process applies only to insulin or whether it reflects a general biological principle for all hormone-secreting cells has, however, remained unclear. Now, the same team have shown that glucagon can also stimulate its own synthesis.