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Multi-Tracer Studies of Brain Oxygen and Glucose Metabolism Using a Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography Scanner
Published on: June 7, 2024
Increased brain transport and metabolism of acetate in hypoglycemia unawareness
Barbara I Gulanski1, Henk M De Feyter, Kathleen A Page
1Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 Cedar Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Context:
Intensive insulin therapy reduces the risk for long-term complications in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) but increases the risk for hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure (HAAF), a syndrome that includes hypoglycemia unawareness and defective glucose counterregulation (reduced epinephrine and glucagon responses to hypoglycemia).
Objective:
The objective of the study was to address mechanisms underlying HAAF, we investigated whether nonglucose fuels such as acetate, a monocarboxylic acid (MCA), can support cerebral energetics during hypoglycemia in T1DM individuals with hypoglycemia unawareness.
Design:
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to measure brain transport and metabolism of [2-(13)C]acetate under hypoglycemic conditions.
Setting:
The study was conducted at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Hospital Research Unit, Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center.
Patients And Other Participants:
T1DM participants with moderate to severe hypoglycemia unawareness (n = 7), T1DM controls without hypoglycemia unawareness (n = 5), and healthy nondiabetic controls (n = 10) participated in the study.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Brain acetate concentrations, (13)C percent enrichment of glutamine and glutamate, and absolute rates of acetate metabolism were measured.
Results:
Absolute rates of acetate metabolism in the cerebral cortex were 1.5-fold higher among T1DM/unaware participants compared with both control groups during hypoglycemia (P = .001). Epinephrine levels of T1DM/unaware subjects were significantly lower than both control groups (P < .05). Epinephrine levels were inversely correlated with levels of cerebral acetate use across the entire study population (P < .01), suggesting a relationship between up-regulated brain MCA use and HAAF.
Conclusion:
Increased MCA transport and metabolism among T1DM individuals with hypoglycemia unawareness may be a mechanism to supply the brain with nonglucose fuels during episodes of acute hypoglycemia and may contribute to the syndrome of hypoglycemia unawareness, independent of diabetes.
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