Miscellaneous Pharmacologic Effects of Glucagon

Abstract

As detailed in Chaps. 34–38, the physiologic role of glucagon as a key hormone in the regulation of glucose metabolism is now largely accepted. In addition, and as reviewed in Chaps. 42–49, glucagon is also involved in the pathophysiology of numerous disorders, including diabetes (Chap. 44), the glucagonoma syndrome (Chap. 43), and some hypoglycemic states (Chap. 42). From the pharmacologic point of view and at doses which are usually a thousand times greater than the levels measured in plasma, glucagon appears as a useful agent for the diagnosis of various disorders, such as pheochromocytoma (Chap. 51) or some forms of hypoglycemia (Chap. 55). As reviewed in Chap. 54, glucagon, by its inhibitory effect on smooth muscle motility is frequently used as an aid in radiodiagnosis. On the therapeutic side, glucagon remains most useful in the treatment of certain forms of hypoglycemia (Chap. 55) or cardiac failure (Chap. 53). In this last chapter, we will briefly review some topics where clear-cut actions of glucagon have been described but which, until now, have not led to large scale clinical use. The actions of glucagon on inflammatory reactions, on food intake and body weight, on bronchial motility, on erythropoiesis, and on tumor growth fall into this category.