Hypoglycemia rapidly develops in cultures of human endothelial cells

Dysfunction of the endothelial nitric oxide signalling pathway in diabetes and hyperglycaemia

“…When experiments were carried out in a medium containing -1 mM glucose, the amount of glucose oxidized via the Krebs cycle was higher than in controls, suggesting that oxidative metabolism in endothelial cells is inhibited at physiological glucose concentrations (Krutzfeldt et al 1990). Watanabe, Fairclough & Jaffe (1992) have shown that endothelial cells isolated from human umbilical vein rapidly metabolize glucose and may alter their cellular function at low glucose concentrations. These findings are of relevance since elevated plasma glucose concentrations in diabetic patients may affect the ability of endothelial cells to metabolize excess glucose.…”