Cerebral Glucose Transport and Homeostasis

Cerebral glucose homeostasis is maintained by the equilibrium between glucose transport across the blood-brain-barrier (BBB), which occurs through facilitative carriers, and glucose consumption mainly initiated by hexokinase phosphorylation. Glucose concentrations can be quantified non invasively by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and such measurements, through appropriate mathematical modelling, allow to determine the kinetics of glucose transport and metabolism. This chapter summarizes the insights gained into brain glucose transport from the measurement of the brain glucose concentration, particularly reviewing state of the art NMR methods for non invasive determination of glucose homeostasis and discussing the employment of mathematical models of glucose transport.