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The Role of the Autonomic Nervous System in Glucagon Secretion

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Book cover GLUCAGON: Its Role in Physiology and Clinical Medicine

Abstract

The conditions under which the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the secretion of glucagon have not yet been adequately defined. However, stressful situations, such as intensive physical exercise, birth, starvation, severe hypoglycemia, infection, extensive burns, rapid exsanguination, myocardial infarction and diabetes mellitus may be associated with heightened sympathetic activity. In these situations an increased supply of metabolic fuels in the form of endogenous glucose and free fatty acids would be advantageous and may be rapidly attained by direct neural stimulation of the liver and adipose tissue. This mobilization of nutrients is aided by an increased glucagon secretion in response to primary sympathetic nerve stimulation and to increased release of the catecholamines due to concomitant stimulation of the adrenal medulla.

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Kaneto, A. (1977). The Role of the Autonomic Nervous System in Glucagon Secretion. In: Foà, P.P., Bajaj, J.S., Foà, N.L. (eds) GLUCAGON: Its Role in Physiology and Clinical Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6366-1_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6366-1_20

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