Peptide directoryBrain, hypothalamus & pituitary

Urocortin 3

The urocortin of the islet, where it stops insulin from overshooting.

Where it comes from

Made in
Pancreatic beta cells, hypothalamus and amygdala, gut, skin
Sent out by
From beta cells with insulin, when glucose is high
Acts on
  • Islet delta cells (somatostatin)
  • Hypothalamus (appetite, social memory)
  • Gut

What it does

  • Released with insulin, it makes delta cells release somatostatin, which then shuts insulin off: a brake on overshoot
  • Lost from beta cells early in type 2 diabetes and in islets that have lost their maturity
  • In the brain, a signal of social recognition and stress

In medicine

  • None; it is not measured in clinical practice and no urocortin 3 medicine exists
  • It is used in the laboratory as a marker that stem-cell-derived islet cells have matured into real beta cells 1

Beyond the body’s own use

  • No human trial of urocortin 3 has been run; what is known comes from islets and from mice 1
  • The finding that made it interesting is a brake inside the islet: urocortin 3 released with insulin drives delta cells to make somatostatin, which shuts insulin off again 1
  • Beta cells lose it early in type 2 diabetes, which is why it is read as a sign of beta-cell maturity rather than treated as a target 1
  • Gene transfer of urocortin 3 improved the failing mouse heart, as its cousin urocortin 2 did, and has not been tried in people 2

Sources

  1. van der Meulen et al., Urocortin 3 mediates somatostatin-dependent negative feedback control of insulin secretion, Nature Medicine 2015
  2. Giamouridis et al., Urocortin 3 gene transfer increases function of the failing murine heart, Human Gene Therapy 2019

This card describes what a medicine is for and what the evidence says; it recommends nothing. Talk to your clinician about anything you read here.