Navarro I, Epple A
Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107.
Am J Physiol. 1993 Jul;265(1 Pt 1):E20-3. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.1993.265.1.E20.
The importance of epinephrine as a counterregulatory hormone in hypoglycemia is still debated. In the American eel (Anguilla rostrata), a species particularly sensitive to the hyperglycemic effect of exogenous epinephrine, insulin-induced hypoglycemia does not provoke an increase of plasma catecholamines; nor does a 35-fold rise of endogenous epinephrine within 5 min cause a statistically significant hyperglycemia. Together with findings in several other species of greatly varying phylogenetic position, these observations suggest that in vertebrates plasma epinephrine does not have significant, if any, glucoregulatory functions.
肾上腺素作为低血糖时的一种对抗调节激素，其重要性仍存在争议。美洲鳗鲡（Anguilla rostrata）对外源肾上腺素的升血糖作用特别敏感，胰岛素诱导的低血糖不会引起血浆儿茶酚胺升高；5分钟内内源性肾上腺素升高35倍也不会导致具有统计学意义的高血糖。结合其他几种系统发育位置差异很大的物种的研究结果，这些观察结果表明，在脊椎动物中，血浆肾上腺素即使有糖调节功能，也不显著。
