BIOL 1010 Chapter Notes - Chapter 28: Alpha Cell, Blood Sugar, Insulin

• School: University of Manitoba
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIOL 1010
• Professor: Emily A.Mc Kinnon

Document Summary

29. 8: pancreas produces two hormones that play a large role in managing the body s energy supplies. Clusters of islets are scattered throughout the pancreas, each has a population of beta cells which produce the hormone insulin and a population of alpha cells which produce another hormone glucagon. They are antagonistic hormones that regulate the concentration of glucose in the blood. They counter each other in a feedback circuit that precisely manages the amount of circulating glucose available to use as cellular fuel versus the amount of glucose stored as the polymer glycogen in body cells. When you eat a carbohydrate rich meal: the rising blood glucose level stimulates the beta cells in the pancreas to secrete more insulin into the blood. The insulin stimulates nearly all body cells to take up glucose from the blood, which decreases the blood glucose level. Liver wells take up much of the glucose and use it to form glycogen which they store.