I realise this question is nearly two years old, but as no-one has answered I'll have a go and answer part based only on what I have read and my experience as a type 1 diabetic as I am not a medical professional. (I'm assuming a partial answer is better than no answer).
Glucagon is produced in the pancreas for both humans with and without diabetes type 1
Agreed
If a non-diabetes human has a hypoglycemia, the pancreas produces glucagon that builds glucose in the liver and gives it into the blood
You are correct in that the pancreas produces glucagon. Glucagon does several things to increase your blood sugar levels but the main one seems to be that it instructs the liver to release glucose into the bloodstream. After you eat, insulin converts the glucose into glycogen which is stored in the liver (and hence out of your bloodstream) and glucagon reverses that process.
This is commonly described as a liver dump
If a diabetic person (type 1) has a hypoglycemia that does not happen
I don't think this is quite true. As I understand it, if a diabetic person has a hypo, their pancreas produces glucagon that instructs the liver to dump some glucose into the blood stream. But one of the most common causes of a hypo are because you have injected too much insulin and so there is a tug-of-war going on. The glucagon is trying to release glucose into the blood stream and the insulin is trying to move it out of the blood stream. So we don't know which side is going to win that war we need to take some glucose to make sure our blood sugar levels don't go too low.
I think the liver dump is one of the difficulties we have with dealing with hypos. Since we can not rely on it happening, we need to take glucose, but sometimes the liver dump plus the glucose means we end up high.
Is there even glucagon produced for diabetic persons (type 1) in the pancreas?
Yes. Far too much. Insulin inhibits glucagon production which means we can't stop producing glucagon unless we are taking external insulin. That means our liver is constantly trying to dump glucose into the blood stream which is why our blood sugar levels keeps rising. This can mean our liver sometimes runs out of glucose and when that happens our levels start going down and can result in hypos.
If yes, why is it not used to regulate the glucose level
Because it can only increase our blood sugar levels and the biggest problem diabetics have is keeping out levels down as the natural tendency is for it to rise. Hypos are the most dangerous problem we face, but not (IMHO) the biggest or most common problem.
and why does an external glucagon injection increase the glucose level (why is the liver stock not emptied)?
Glucagon injection are always considered a last resort and also just the first step as you need to take glucose as well.
But this is one question where I am not sure of the answer.
I think the answer is because the two most common causes for hypos are
- Running out of glucose.
This can be caused by skipping a meal or performing more activity and hence burning through more glucose than normal. When this happens, it is possible that the liver stock may actually be empty. But when this happens your blood glucose levels usually drop slowly and most people have hypo symptoms and realise they are going hypo and can take glucose before it is too late (or they may have someone close by who realises can give them glucose).
But Glucagon injections do appear something even when your glycogen is depleted, but how or what it does is the part I am not clear on.
It is possible that the Glucagon injection (which may be a much larger dose that we produce naturally) and so be able to produce just enough glucose so that the patient becomes responsive and able to take extra glucose.
- Taking too much insulin.
Depending on how much extra insulin is taken, this can cause your blood sugar levels to drop very very quickly and it may happen so fast you go into a coma. In that case you can't take external glucose and this is where a Glucagon injection would mostly commonly be used. But this case usually means there is plenty of glucose stored in the liver. Since presumably the amount of Glucagon injected would be fair greater than the insulin on board, it would win the tug of war.
As with almost everything diabetic, the situation is a lot more complicated than this.
