Affiliate Michael Schwartz has new research that has discovered neurons within the brain which detect and respond to changes in the level of sugar within the bloodstream. Understanding how this blood-sugar detection system works and how these neurocircuits operate would give researchers and doctors greater insights into how our brains regulate our blood sugar and, perhaps, how to target them therapeutically to treat metabolic diseases like diabetes and obesity, according to the study authors. “We’ve known for a long time that many neurons can detect sugar locally within the brain,” said Dr. Michael Schwartz, professor (Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition) and co-director of the UW Medicine Diabetes Institute. “What is new, however, is the evidence that a subset of neurons located in the hypothalamus can sense and respond to sugar in the bloodstream itself, analogous to the cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin.”
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