ABSTRACT
Regulation and Dysregulation of Whole-Body Glucose Homeostasis............ 423 Normal Regulation of Glucose Homeostasis............................................... 423 Dysregulation of Glucose Homeostasis ....................................................... 425
Brief Overview of a-Lipoic Acid and Its Role as an Antioxidant.................. 427 Beneficial Metabolic Effects of a-Lipoic Acid in Animal Models of Insulin Resistance .................................................................................... 427 Genetic Models of Insulin Resistance ......................................................... 427 Nutritional Intervention Models of Insulin Resistance................................ 429 Models of Type-1 Diabetes ......................................................................... 429 Effects of a-Lipoic Acid Conjugates and Derivatives on Metabolic Regulation.......................................................................... 430
Summary and Perspectives .............................................................................. 431 References ........................................................................................................ 432
The regulation of glucose homeostasis in the intact organism is mediated by the coordinated functions of several organ systems. The liver is the primary site of glucose production from the glycogenolytic and gluconeogenic processes (Wasserman and Cherrington 1991), whereas the skeletal muscle, which comprises ~40% of the body weight of humans and most other mammalian species, is the predominant site of glucose disposal following a meal or during an exercise bout (DeFronzo et al. 1983; Baron et al. 1988). Both hepatic glucose production and
skeletal muscle glucose uptake are under the influence of several neural and hormonal factors, as described below.
