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The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances

The physiological response to a psychological stressor broadly impacts energy metabolism. Inversely, changes in energy availability affect the physiological response to the stressor in terms of hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal axis (HPA), and sympathetic nervous system activation. Glucocorticoids, th...

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Autores principales: Seal, Snehaa V., Turner, Jonathan D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8037741/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33805856
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22073344
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author Seal, Snehaa V.
Turner, Jonathan D.
author_facet Seal, Snehaa V.
Turner, Jonathan D.
author_sort Seal, Snehaa V.
collection PubMed
description The physiological response to a psychological stressor broadly impacts energy metabolism. Inversely, changes in energy availability affect the physiological response to the stressor in terms of hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal axis (HPA), and sympathetic nervous system activation. Glucocorticoids, the endpoint of the HPA axis, are critical checkpoints in endocrine control of energy homeostasis and have been linked to metabolic diseases including obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Glucocorticoids, through the glucocorticoid receptor, activate transcription of genes associated with glucose and lipid regulatory pathways and thereby control both physiological and pathophysiological systemic energy homeostasis. Here, we summarize the current knowledge of glucocorticoid functions in energy metabolism and systemic metabolic dysfunction, particularly focusing on glucose and lipid metabolism. There are elements in the external environment that induce lifelong changes in the HPA axis stress response and glucocorticoid levels, and the most prominent are early life adversity, or exposure to traumatic stress. We hypothesise that when the HPA axis is so disturbed after early life adversity, it will fundamentally alter hepatic gluconeogenesis, inducing hyperglycaemia, and hence crystalise the significant lifelong risk of developing either the metabolic syndrome, or type 2 diabetes. This gives a “Jekyll and Hyde” role to gluconeogenesis, providing the necessary energy in situations of acute stress, but driving towards pathophysiological consequences when the HPA axis has been altered.
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spelling pubmed-80377412021-04-12 The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances Seal, Snehaa V. Turner, Jonathan D. Int J Mol Sci Review The physiological response to a psychological stressor broadly impacts energy metabolism. Inversely, changes in energy availability affect the physiological response to the stressor in terms of hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal axis (HPA), and sympathetic nervous system activation. Glucocorticoids, the endpoint of the HPA axis, are critical checkpoints in endocrine control of energy homeostasis and have been linked to metabolic diseases including obesity, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes. Glucocorticoids, through the glucocorticoid receptor, activate transcription of genes associated with glucose and lipid regulatory pathways and thereby control both physiological and pathophysiological systemic energy homeostasis. Here, we summarize the current knowledge of glucocorticoid functions in energy metabolism and systemic metabolic dysfunction, particularly focusing on glucose and lipid metabolism. There are elements in the external environment that induce lifelong changes in the HPA axis stress response and glucocorticoid levels, and the most prominent are early life adversity, or exposure to traumatic stress. We hypothesise that when the HPA axis is so disturbed after early life adversity, it will fundamentally alter hepatic gluconeogenesis, inducing hyperglycaemia, and hence crystalise the significant lifelong risk of developing either the metabolic syndrome, or type 2 diabetes. This gives a “Jekyll and Hyde” role to gluconeogenesis, providing the necessary energy in situations of acute stress, but driving towards pathophysiological consequences when the HPA axis has been altered. MDPI 2021-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8037741/ /pubmed/33805856 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22073344 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Review
Seal, Snehaa V.
Turner, Jonathan D.
The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances
title The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances
title_full The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances
title_fullStr The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances
title_full_unstemmed The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances
title_short The ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ of Gluconeogenesis: Early Life Adversity, Later Life Stress, and Metabolic Disturbances
title_sort ‘jekyll and hyde’ of gluconeogenesis: early life adversity, later life stress, and metabolic disturbances
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8037741/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33805856
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22073344
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