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Insulin and the blood-brain barrier
Stephen C Woods1, Randy J Seeley, Denis G Baskin
1Department of Psychiatry, Box 670559, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA. steve.woods@psychiatry.uc.edu
Current Pharmaceutical Design
|April 8, 2003
Abstract:
Although several possible mechanisms exist by which the pancreatic hormone, insulin, could enter the brain from the blood, most evidence suggests that the majority of it enters primarily by a receptor-mediated transport process. Many factors influence the rate of entry, including fasting and refeeding and several pathological conditions. Within the brain insulin acts on specific receptors to influence a number of behaviors, and especially caloric homeostasis and cognition.