Physiology, Enteroglucagon

Excerpt

Enteroglucagon is a molecule discovered in the human intestine. The historical belief was that it was an extra-pancreatic isoform of glucagon. Glucagon-like substances in the intestine were first described by Sutherland and De Duve, who identified them in preparations from the intestinal mucosa. These substances came to be known as peptides with glucagon-like immunoreactivity (GLI) due to patterns of immunoreactivity shared with glucagon. Subsequent sequencing studies revealed that enteroglucagons actually consisted of several different molecules derived within the L-cells (enteroendocrine cells) of the intestine by post-translational modification of the preproglucagon polypeptide. L-cells or enteroendocrine cells have been localized most specifically to the ileum and the colon, although they occur sporadically in other parts of the intestine.