Category: sugar
Aliases: Dextrose, D-Glucose, Blood sugar, Grape sugar, Glucose monohydrate, Corn sugar
Aldohexose monosaccharide and the body's primary circulating energy substrate. Absorbed across the intestinal brush border chiefly by sodium-coupled SGLT1 and facilitatively by GLUT2; cellular uptake elsewhere uses GLUT1–4, with GLUT4 trafficking driven by [[insulin]] signaling. Phosphorylated by hexokinase/glucokinase to glucose-6-phosphate, then committed to glycolysis (pyruvate → acetyl-CoA), the pentose-phosphate pathway, or glycogen synthesis; gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis restore it during fasting. Rising plasma glucose is the principal stimulus for pancreatic β-cell insulin release. The D-enantiomer (dextrose) is the metabolically active form. As a sweetener it is roughly 0.7–0.75× as sweet as sucrose. Clinically used as oral or IV dextrose for hypoglycemia and caloric support.