Hepatic Gluconeogenesis

Hepatic gluconeogenesis is a metabolic pathway in the liver that synthesizes glucose from non-carbohydrate precursors, playing a critical role in maintaining blood glucose levels during fasting, starvation, low-carbohydrate diets, or intense exercise. It converts substrates like lactate, glycerol, and glucogenic amino acids into glucose via key enzymes including Pyruvate Carboxylase (PC), Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase (PEPCK), Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase), and Glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PC). The pathway is regulated by hormones such as glucagon, insulin, and cortisol, and transcription factors like CRTC2. Dysregulation leads to excessive hepatic glucose production, a hallmark of fasting hyperglycemia seen in diabetes mellitus. Targeting regulators has shown promise in reducing hyperglycemia experimentally.

Other names

Liver GluconeogenesisHepatic Glucose Production

Hepatic gluconeogenesis is a target for reducing excessive glucose production in diabetes. Approaches include inhibiting key enzymes (PC, PEPCK, FBPase, G6PC) or modulating transcriptional regulators (CRTC2, CREB, Sam68) involved in the pathway.