Neuronal glucose sensing: still a physiological orphan?

Although hypothalamic glucose sensing is a long-established phenomenon, its physiological role remains unclear. New studies (Parton et al., 2007; Claret et al., 2007) disrupting glucose sensing in pro-opiomelanocortin neurons via differing methods have yielded disparate energy and glucose homeostasis phenotypes, suggesting that neuronal glucose sensing is not critical for these processes.