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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Jun 29.
Published in final edited form as: Handb Exp Pharmacol. 2011;(203):303–330. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-17214-4_13

Figure 3. AMPK, a potential therapeutic target in metabolic disease.

Figure 3

AMPK pathway has become the focus of a great deal of attention as a novel therapeutic target in metabolic disease because it has been demonstrated that physiological and pharmacological activation of AMPK results in remodelling different metabolic pathways. AMPK has several important metabolic effects, mimicking the beneficial effects of exercise, including modulation of lipid metabolism, enhanced muscle glucose uptake, increased mitochondrial biogenesis, improvement in insulin sensitivity and reduction in blood glucose. Activation of AMPK by pharmacological agents presents a unique challenge to prevent and treat the metabolic abnormalities associated with the metabolic syndrome.