Blood Glucose Homeostasis: An Attempt By Body To Maintain A Balance (Term Paper Sample)

BLOOD GLUCOSE HOMEOSTASIS Student’s Name Course Professor’s Name University City (State) Date From a physiological perspective, homeostasis refers to the attempt by the body to maintain a balanced setting in the internal environment even in instances where the external environment consists of certain changes. Simply put, it is the body’s approach of maintaining the ideal operating conditions. Notably, an organism’s healthiness largely depends on the aptness of its metabolic processes. These systems have to operate under specific chemical and physical conditions (Aronoff, Berhowitz, Shreiner, & Want, 2004). The embedded components include the effector, receptor, and control center. The receptor usually acquires information regarding the changes in the outer environment. The information is referred to as the stimulus. The control center then processes this information and forwards the apt command to the effector, which reacts by either enhancing or opposing the stimulus (Wagner, 2015). One of the main types of homeostasis is that of the blood glucose. Blood glucose homeostasis entails the use of glucagon and insulin to maintain blood sugar levels at the ideal setting. Glucose is an important substrate in any mammal’s metabolic process. It provides the cellular energy needed by different organs of the body to execute their duties effectively. In addition to other monosaccharides, it gets to the organism’s hepatic portal vein via the intestinal wall before reaching the cells of the liver as well as other tissues. Subsequently, it is transformed into glycogen, amino acids, and fatty acids (Wagner, 2015). It can also be oxidized through the cells’ catabolic pathways. Notably, the catabolic pathways are a crucial component of blood glucose homeostasis since they are involved in balancing the levels of sugar in the system. Glycolysis is one such pathway. It occurs in the cell’s cytoplasm and is involved in oxidizing glucose to produce pyruvate (Wagner, 2015). Glycolysis splits the 6-carbon molecule of glucose into 2 Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules and two Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) molecules in its reduced form. The latter cofactor has to be oxidized further to produce NAD and allow the completion of this catabolic pathway (Baynes & Dominiczak, 2018). This process is present in almost all the body’s tissues. One of the aspects that contribute to its uniqueness is the fact that it can take place in both anaerobic and aerobic environments. The other pathway involving blood glucose is oxidative decarboxylation. It occurs in an aerobic setup and entails the oxidation of pyruvate during the process of metabolizing glucose in a cell’s mitochondria. NAD is utilized as a proton and electron acceptor while pyruvate is altered into Acetyl coenzyme-A. The ultimate result of this reaction is 2 Acetyl coenzyme-A, 2 CO2, and 2 reduced versions of NADH molecules (Frystyk, 2004). The Krebs cycle is another part of the metabolic processes involved in blood glucose hemostasis. It refers to a number of reactions that all take place in the eukaryotic cells’ mitochondria. It is also termed as the tricarboxylic acid cycle or the citric acid cycle. In this process, CO2 is released as a result of the oxidation of Acetyl coenzyme-A (Baynes & Dominiczak, 2018). The molecules that are yielded from this cycle are utilized as building blocks which are necessary for other processes such as the production of amino acids, fatty acids, pyrimidines, purines, cholesterol, and steroids. The energy needed for the Krebs cycle originates from the proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids, which are transformed into Acetyl coenzyme-A. The cycle yields FADH2 and the reduced form of NADH (Baynes & Dominiczak, 2018). These molecules are useful in the respiratory cycle that takes place in the cell’s mitochondria. The electron transport chain is another crucial process in the multifaceted system of blood glucose homeostasis. It encompasses the oxidative phosphorylation procedure, which entails the utilization of the energy obtained from the electron carriers containing FADH2 and NADH for the main purpose of yielding more ATP. The mitochondria’s inner membrane has proteins that utilize this energy to fill the space of the membrane with protons. ATP synthase makes use of the resultant chemical and electrical proton gradient to facilitate the conversion of ADP to ATP (Aronoff, Berhowitz, Shreiner, & Want, 2004). This process can only occur in an aerobic environment. Anaerobic glycolysis is another process that involves blood sugar and hence is crucial in the analysis of the blood glucose homeostasis. It takes place in anaerobic settings and involves the reduction of the pyruvate obtained in previous pathways to lactate (Satyanarayana, 2014). This conversion process also results in the transformation of NADH into NAD. In the end, the process yields 2 ATP molecules as well as 1 glucose molecule. Increase in lactate lowers the pH level in the cell. Subsequently, this enzyme is either altered back into pyruvate through the catalytic role of lactate dehydrogenase or passed through the process of gluconeogenesis to yield glucose. Gluconeogenesis can also involve the production of glucose from other substrates such as glucogenic amino acids and glycerol (Rust, 2017). The obtained glucose is then released into the bloodstream as a source of energy for the muscles in different body parts and also for storage in the form of glycogen. In addition, glycogenesis and glycogenolysis are part of the body’s broad process of regulating blood sugar levels. On the one hand, glycogenesis entails the inclusion of glucose molecules in the glycogen chain. These molecules are stored as energy reservoirs in muscles and in the liver. This procedure takes place after gluconeogenesis when one is inactive. It is also triggered by insulin as a way of dealing with the high levels of blood sugar (Satyanarayana, 2014). On the other hand, glycogenolysis is the process by which glycogen is broken down in instances when the levels of blood glucose are below the ideal condition. The pentose phosphate mechanism is also a relevant component of blood glucose homeostasis. Although this process involves glucose oxidation, it has more of an anabolic role than a catabolic one. It entails the generation of pentose sugars from the 6-carbon glucose molecules (Sherwood, 2015). It is a substitute of glycolysis and is responsible for the oxidation of about one-third of the glucose stored in the liver. Lipogenesis is also an element of the blood sugar regulation mechanism. In this pathway, glucose and other simple sugars are transformed into fatty acids. The procedure results into the formation of triglycerides, which contain low-density lipoprotein (Sherwood, 2015). This product is usually released from the liver. left335280Glycogenolysis 00Glycogenolysis 195262551435Consumed foodstuffs0Consumed foodstuffs381952560960Gluconeogenesis 0Gluconeogenesis 102870019621528289252438403619500110490 2076450121920Provision of glucose00Provision of glucose 3038475228600 1885950288290Ideal levels of glucose in the blood Ideal levels of glucose in the blood 390525092074290512592075103822592075 4581525343535Storage Storage 2047875229235Utilization Utilization -3810095884Conversion 0Conversion 5457825175895286702514732046672542545 4276725196850Glycogenesis Glycogenesis 1762125158750Glycolysis Glycolysis -209550168275Lipogenesis Lipogenesis Negative feedback loops are an important component of any homeostasis. Accordingly, the interference of the feedback mechanism results in the disruption of the regulation process. Depending on the intensity of the interference, this may trigger a disease. Notably, diabetes is one of the illnesses that result from a ruined feedback loop containing insulin. Such a situation makes it hard for the human body to control the blood sugar level. In a healthy individual, glucagon and insulin are the two hormones that are responsible for controlling the levels of glucose in the blood (Frystyk, 2004). On the one hand, insulin lowers the level of blood glucose. Upon ingesting food, the concentration of blood sugar is bound to rise. This change prompts the pancreas’ beta cells to secret insulin. This hormone is considered as an indicator that triggers the muscle and fat cells to absorb glucose for energy purposes. In addition, this hormone enables the liver to convert the remaining glucose into glycogen. These processes reduce the concentration of glucose in the blood (Rust, 2017). Subsequently, there is a reduction in the amount of secreted insulin hence returning the internal environment to the ideal conditions. On the other hand, glucagon performs in an opposite manner from insulin. This hormone usually regulates blood sugar levels by increasing the amount of glucose in the system. For instance, during starvation, the level of blood glucose falls below the ideal setting. This prompts the pancreas’ alpha cells to secret glucagon. It stipulates the conversion of the glycogen stored in the liver into glucose (Baynes & Dominiczak, 2018). The subsequent release of the glucose into the blood increases the concentration of blood sugar hence maintaining the required balance in the bodily system. 1457325135255The consumption and subsequent digestion of food causes increase in the concentration of glucose in the blood0The consumption and subsequent digestion of food causes increase in the concentration of glucose in the blood 4067175245745 3905241904900 -276225289559Following the reduction of the blood sugar levels, the pancreas stops releasing insulin into the system0Following the reduction of the blood sugar levels, the pancreas stops releasing insulin into the system441007513335Pancreas releases insulin as a way of maintaining the standard levels of blood glucosePancreas releases insulin as a way of maintaini...