Objective: Hypoglycemia is associated with a variety of adverse behaviors including fatigue, confusion and social withdrawal. While these clinical symptoms are well characterized, the mechanism of their cause is not understood. Here we investigated how insulin-induced hypoglycemia causes social withdrawal.
Research design and methods: Male 8-12-week-old C57BL/6J mice were injected intraperitoneally (IP) with or without and/or insulin, norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (Epi), terbutaline and butoxamine with subsequent measurement of blood glucose, social withdrawal and plasma catecholamines.
Results: Insulin generated (0.75h post-injection) significant hypoglycemia with blood glucose nadirs of 64+/-4 and 48+/-5mg/dl for 0.8 and 1.2units/kg of insulin, respectively. Insulin (0.8 or 1.2units/kg) caused near total social withdrawal at 0.75h with full recovery not occurring until 4h (0.8units/kg) or 8h (1.2units/kg) post-insulin injection. Insulin also caused a marked elevation in plasma catecholamines. Basal 12h fasting NE and Epi were 287+/-38 and 350+/-47pg/ml, respectively. Insulin at 0.8units/kg increased plasma NE and Epi to 994+/-73 and 1842+/-473pg/ml, respectively. Administration of exogenous NE or Epi caused social withdrawal similar in magnitude to insulin. Importantly, administration of the beta-2 adrenergic receptor agonist terbutaline also caused social withdrawal while administration of the beta-2 adrenergic receptor antagonist butoxamine blocked NE-induced social withdrawal. Finally, butoxamine blocked insulin-induced social withdrawal.
Conclusions: These data demonstrate that hypoglycemia-associated social withdrawal is dependent on catecholamines via a beta-2 receptor-mediated pathway.