English: Key hypothalamic nuclei and other areas involved in glucose homeostasis. Representation of a sagittal section of a human brain, where the most relevant nuclei of the hypothalamus and the brain stem involved in control of glucose production and uptake are depicted. One of the brain areas that is most involved in the regulation of glucose homeostasis is the hypothalamus, located in the diencephalon (Zhang and van den Pol 2016). To have a better understanding of its physiology and role in glucose homeostasis, it is important to briefly present its anatomy. There are eleven major nuclei in the hypothalamus (see Fig. 1). Four of them have been found to have key roles in neuroendocrine regulation: i) the arcuate nucleus (ARC), located next to the third ventricle in the mediobasal hypothalamus, ii) the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), located in the periventricular zone, iii) the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus (VMH), and iv) the lateral hypothalamic nucleus (LHN) (Broberger and Hökfelt 2001; Shin et al. 2017; Williams et al. 2001). The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), involved in circadian timing, as well as the anterior and preoptic nuclei, involved in control of the autonomic nervous system, have also been proven to play a role in the control of energy homeostasis (Dougherty 2018). In addition to the hypothalamus, there are other brain regions, such as the brainstem, that contain nuclei which are also implicated in the regulation of the body’s energy homeostasis (Williams et al. 2001).