Identifying the Brain Substrates of Hypoglycemia Unawareness in Type 1 Diabetes

Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the brain responds to low blood glucose in non-diabetic individuals. The ultimate goal is to understand the brain substrates of hypoglycemia unawareness, a condition that can occur in patients with type1 diabetes undergoing insulin treatment.In the present study, the investigators focus on differences between two groups of non-diabetic subjects: one group who experienced two episodes of hypoglycemia the day prior to the study (and supposedly developed some level of unawareness to hypoglycemia), and one group who did not. In this study, a 3 tesla MRI scanner is used to acquire brain images. The imaging system is identical to the ones used in hospitals.

Timeline

Start

2016-11

Primary completion

2019-09-30

Completion

2019-12-30

Publications

• Background Mangia S, Tesfaye N, De Martino F, Kumar AF, Kollasch P, Moheet AA, Eberly LE, Seaquist ER. Hypoglycemia-induced increases in thalamic cerebral blood flow are blunted in subjects with type 1 diabetes and hypoglycemia unawareness. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2012 Nov;32(11):2084-90. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.2012.117. Epub 2012 Aug 15.
• Background Bolo NR, Musen G, Simonson DC, Nickerson LD, Flores VL, Siracusa T, Hager B, Lyoo IK, Renshaw PF, Jacobson AM. Functional Connectivity of Insula, Basal Ganglia, and Prefrontal Executive Control Networks during Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetes. J Neurosci. 2015 Aug 5;35(31):11012-23. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0319-15.2015.
• Background Wiegers EC, Becker KM, Rooijackers HM, von Samson-Himmelstjerna FC, Tack CJ, Heerschap A, de Galan BE, van der Graaf M. Cerebral blood flow response to hypoglycemia is altered in patients with type 1 diabetes and impaired awareness of hypoglycemia. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2017 Jun;37(6):1994-2001. doi: 10.1177/0271678X16658914. Epub 2016 Jan 1.
• Background Rooijackers HM, Wiegers EC, Tack CJ, van der Graaf M, de Galan BE. Brain glucose metabolism during hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetes: insights from functional and metabolic neuroimaging studies. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2016 Feb;73(4):705-22. doi: 10.1007/s00018-015-2079-8. Epub 2015 Oct 31.
• Filip P, Canna A, Grohn H, Moheet AA, Kumar AF, Li X, Zhang Y, Eberly LE, Seaquist ER, Mangia S. Disrupted neurovascular-endocrine coupling in type 1 diabetes with impaired awareness of hypoglycemia. J Clin Invest. 2026 Feb 19;136(8):e199725. doi: 10.1172/JCI199725. eCollection 2026 Apr 15.

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