Hormonal control of carbohydrate metabolism

Abstract

The role of the pancreatic-enteric group of hormones in carbohydrate metabolism is discussed. It is emphasized that although the immunoassay of polypeptide hormones has rapidly advanced knowledge in this field, certain pitfalls in the technique associated with cross-reacting substances, with degradation of labelled hormone in serum, and with the double-antibody technique have also added confusion to the area. Insulin is the key hormone in carbohydrate metabolism. Glucagon appears to function to provide glucose during acute hypoglycaemic states but its role in more chronic events such as starvation is less clear. Glucagon also stimulates insulin release, and is itself released by pancreozymin and amino-acids; it therefore appears to play a part in the metabolic consequences of food ingestion. A number of enteric hormones, including pancreozymin, secretin, gastrin, and a hormone which reacts immunologically like glucagon but differs in other respects, all have insulin-stimulating properties and therefore appear to be of importance in the utilization of absorbed products of digestion, but their exact physiological role in carbohydrate metabolism is not yet known.