![Exploring the Brain-Glucose Connection]()
In a study published this May in Diabetes, Meredith Hawkins, M.D., recently investigated whether the glucose regulatory mechanism in the brain’s hypothalamus is defective in people with diabetes, which could help account for their abnormally high blood-glucose levels. To seven healthy individuals and eight with moderately to poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, Dr. Hawkins and colleagues administered oral diazoxide, a drug that activates potassium channels in the hypothalamus. Several hours after diazoxide was given, blood tests showed that the drug had significantly lowered the glucose output of the healthy participants’ livers by an average of 27 percent—showing that the hypothalamus had operated normally to control blood-glucose levels. By contrast, diaxozide had no effect on blood-glucose levels of participants with diabetes, indicating a breakdown in communications between the brain and liver that allowed the liver to release glucose unabated. The findings could lead to therapies to restore the brain’s regulation of blood glucose levels. Dr. Hawkins is professor of medicine, director of the Global Diabetes Initiative and holds the Harold and Muriel Block Chair in Medicine at Einstein. She also is an attending physician in medicine at Montefiore.
Posted on: Tuesday, June 14, 2016