Adrenaline carbohydrate metabolism

He graduated with an M.D. from the University of Buenos Aires in 1932 and started his scientific career at the Institute of Physiology researching adrenalin carbohydrate metabolism. 

Lepidine Lepidium ruderale L/Cruciferae Aerial parts Lepidine had showed hypoglycemic effects in mice and rabbits in alloxan induced mild chronic diabetes and in adrenalin induced hyperglycemic rats [12-15], However, lepidine failed to affect carbohydrate metabolism in insulin-insufficient diabetic rats made by surgical pancreatectomy. Furthermore, this compound decreased glucosuria, polydipsia and increased glycogen in liver in alloxan induced mild chronic diabetics [16],... 

Brown and West later showed that adrenaline, when given with dextran or g-white intradermally or subcutaneously, is considerably more active than noradrenaline in suppressing the subsequent reaction. They suggest that an effect on carbohydrate metabolism may be involved since exogenous glucose also prevents the response. However, the sympathomimetic amines in much smaller doses also inhibit inflammatory effects of bradykinin, and in this case exogenous glucose exerts only a feeble inhibitory effect. From these and other experiments they conclude that adrenaline, and possibly noradrenaline, may act as local anti-inflammatory hormones in the tissues. 

Small doses of adrenaline, inactive in control animals, have also been reported to protect adrenalectomized rats from the severe shock produced by egg-white [120, 244]. In fact, it has been suggested that the adrenal medulla, and not the adrenal cortex, protects rats from a fatal anaphylactoid response [392, 606]. Moreover, both adrenaline and noradrenaline inhibit the anaphylactoid reaction produced by egg-white [94, 119, 231, 248, 489] or dextran [125, 250] in the intact animal. Noradrenaline (a more potent vasoconstrictor than adrenaline) was always less active in these studies so that inhibition is probably not related to vasoconstriction (a classical alpha adrenergic action on the Ahlquist classification of adrenergic receptors [19]). Protection may involve an effect on carbohydrate metabolism as adrenaline is more potent than noradrenaline in producing hyperglycaemia [75, 356]. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of adrenaline on the anaphylactoid reaction [445] and its hyperglycaemic activity [116, 604] are inhibited by beta, but not by alpha, adrenergic blockade. 

Weil-Malherbe, H., Carbohydrate metabolism and plasma adrenaline level, Biochem. J. 63, 4p (1956). 

Bearn, A. G., Billing, B. and Sherlock, S., The effect of adrenaline and noradrenaline on hepatic blood flow and splanchnic carbohydrate metabolism in man, J. Physiol 115, 430 (1951). 

The study of catecholamines and their metabolites has grown enormously in recent years since the advent of HPLC coupled to highly sensitive detection systems. The catecholamines play a major role in the function of the body s nervous system. Dopamine and noradrenaline exert a marked influence on the vascular system, whilst adrenaline, synthesized largely in the adrenal medulla, affects the rate of many metabolic processes, particularly carbohydrate metabolism. The major metabolic pathways of catecholamine inactivation are shown in Figure 1. Abnormal levels of these amines and their metabolites have been associated with a number of disease states, notably Parkinson s disease [1], neural tumours such as phaeochromocytoma[2] and hypertension [3]. 

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