Glucagon (3-29) – Hormones

The cleavage of proglucagon forms glucagon. Increased levels of glucagon that can’t be regulated are linked to diabetic hyperglycaemia and other pathologies. Typically, glucagon levels should be suppressed as glucose levels rise. However, the opposite has generally been found to be accurate, and the nature of this elevated immunoreactive glucagon has led to more research. Hyperglucagonaemia is a characteristic of several pathologies, but the detection of immunoreactive glucagon has yet to be fully verified due to the nature of available detection. Glucagon can be hydrolysed by dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPIV) to products such as (18-29) and (3-29). Current methods for detecting glucagon rely on antibodies to the N terminus or C-terminus to detect pancreatic glucagon. However, these antibodies may also detect truncated forms due to a pathology affecting the secretion, clearance or processing of proglucagon-derived peptides. Theoretically, these can be used in a sandwich process to detect only full-length glucagon. Therefore, the availability of the truncated glucagon (3-29) as a control to test the sensitivity of the available antibodies and the ELISAs is useful. Plasma levels from hyperglucagonaemic patients and healthy counterparts were used as a control to test the commercial glucagon assays and ELISAs. The truncated glucagon (3-29) provided valuable information about the sensitivity and specificity of the antibodies that have been used as an industry standard for glucagon measurement. This truncated glucagon is vital in ensuring our research moves forward with more controls and fewer assumptions.