These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Mechanisms of increased brain glucose and glycogen after hydrocortisone: possible clinical significance.
    Author: Thurston JH, Hauhart RE, Dirgo JA, Jones EM.
    Journal: Ann Neurol; 1980 Jun; 7(6):515-23. PubMed ID: 6776872.
    Abstract:
    We reported previously that chronic administration of hydrocortisone to normal developing mice increases the brain glucose content and cerebral energy reserve. The present report concerns possible mechanisms of this action. Increases in brain glucose (and glycogen) levels were not due to reduction of cerebral metabolic rate, and the effect of hydrocortisone in facilitating transport of hexose from blood to brain was not impressive. Chronic hydrocortisone treatment induced increases in the activities of brain glycerophosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate carboxylase in vivo; there was no effect on eleven other enzymes of brain glucose and glycogen metabolism. In normal nursing mice, hydrocortisone produced consistent elevations in plasma beta-hydroxybutyrate (and glycerol) levels. Brain beta-hydroxybutyrate levels were also increased. Therefore, the brain glucose concentration may be elevated in these animals because of the availability of an increased supply of ketone bodies as alternative substrates for cerebral oxidative metabolism and biosynthesis. Ketonemia, elevated cerebral glucose and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations, and increased glycerophosphate dehydrogenase activity in brain suggest possible explanations for the beneficial action of adrenocorticotropic hormone and glucocorticoids in the treatment of infantile myoclonic epilepsy and other neurological disorders.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]