The Different Body Parts Insulin Stimulates

6. Regulation Of Enzyme Activity

Insulin has several roles in the liver. First, it traps and stimulates the enzyme hexokinase, which is needed to add a phosphate to the molecular sequence of glucose. Insulin also inhibits the activity of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase, which creates free glucose, and it activates several other enzymes directly involved in the synthesis of glucose such as glycogen synthase and phosphofructokinase. In other words, when there is an abundant supply of glucose, insulin sends a message to the liver and tells it to store as much of it as possible for later use.