Fig. 6.

Hepatic U/S stimulation of pathways that affect glucose regulation. a 2D US image of the liver used to focus the U/S stimulus to the target site (green arrow; white arrows—outline of the liver). b Data showing the effect of U/S stimulation of the liver on LPS-induced hyperglycemia. Relative blood glucose concentrations compared to pre-injection concentration are shown at times of 5, 15, 30, and 60 min. The data show reversal of LPS-induced hyperglycemia after U/S stimulation of the porta hepatis (red-squares), but not distal lobes (purple-triangles), compared to LPS alone (blue-circles) or naive/no-LPS stimulated (light blue-diamonds) samples c Relative concentrations compared to no U/S for molecules associated with metabolism in the liver and hypothalamus. Significant response to U/S stimulation was found for norepinephrine (NE), protein kinase B (pAkt), insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1), and neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the hypothalamus. The asterisks mark statistical significance using two-sided t-test versus LPS only controls (with p-value thresholds; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001). n = 12 for each experimental condition. All experiments in this figure were performed using the same U/S parameters as Figs. 3–5