[Significance of glucagon control in the diabetes treatment]

Among islet cell types, much less attention has been paid to α cells than to β cells, but glucagon, the product of α cells, has been shown to play a major role in the development of hyperglycemia in T2DM. Recent clinical application of DPP4 inhibitor and GLP-1 receptor agonist gave attention to glucagon again. Furthermore, recently metformin has been also reported to suppress glucagon's function on hepatic glucose production. One of the critical issues in the glucagon research is the poor specificity of current assay systems. Our newly developed glucagon sandwich ELISA, having higher specificity than conventional systems, revealed that T2DM patients have more severe hyperglucagonemia than currently assumed. Thus, in the future diabetes treatment, we should pay more attention to plasma glucagon levels in diabetes patients.