Study shows orexin neurons can track how fast blood glucose changes
Key Takeaways
- New research in mice suggests that a type of nerve cell called orexin neurons is responsible for tracking how fast sugar levels are changing in the blood.
- The study is the first to investigate the role of orexin neurons in sensing blood sugar levels in the brains of living, behaving mice.
The concentration of glucose (sugar) in the blood of humans continuously changes in response to what they eat and the activities they engage in. While many studies have investigated changes in blood glucose, the role of different nerve cells (neurons) in tracking and predicting these changes remains poorly understood.
Researchers at ETH Zürich have been investigating the potential role of a specific type of neuron, called orexin neurons, in tracking blood glucose levels. While the team’s previous studies gathered interesting insight about orexin neurons, they were primarily carried out on isolated cells examined in petri dishes. The role of these cells in the brains of living animals and their connection to blood glucose levels had yet to be examined.
In new research, Denis Burdakov and colleagues measured the real-time activity of live orexin neurons in the brains of mice while simultaneously measuring glucose level fluctuations in the blood. They also measured the behavior of the mice to determine whether it was influenced by changes in blood glucose levels, both in normal mice and in mice that did not have orexin-producing neurons. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that orexin neurons in the mouse brain are responsible for tracking how fast blood glucose levels are changing, rather than sensing absolute blood glucose concentrations. “We also confirmed that this could be very important for a basic output of the brain, voluntary movement: Mice who lacked orexin neurons could not normally adjust their running behavior to their glucose,” Burdakov said. The findings shed new light on the complex neurobiology of blood glucose perception in the brain.
Edited by Miriam Kaplan, PhD
Source: Ingrid Fadelli, Medical Xpress, June 6, 2024; see source article