The role of glucagon in diabetes

The current understanding of diabetes points to a bihormonal abnormality in which the level of glucagon is inappropriately high relative to the level (or activity) of insulin, causing a rate of hepatic glucose production that is high relative to glucose utilization. This imbalance can be corrected by increasing insulin or reducing glucagon. At the present time only the former approach constitutes a feasible and practical means of managing the diabetic patient. Whether or not concomitant suppression of glucagon will provide a further therapeutic advantage remains to be determined.