Design Principles of Pancreatic Islets: Glucose-dependent Coordination of Hormone Pulses

TL;DR

This study uses a mathematical model to reveal how pancreatic islet cells coordinate hormone pulses through synchronization, influenced by glucose levels and cell composition, providing insights into islet function and diabetes.

Contribution

The paper introduces a comprehensive mathematical model that elucidates the role of cell organization and interactions in hormone pulse coordination within pancreatic islets.

Findings

Synchronous hormone pulses occur under low and high glucose conditions.

Asynchronous pulses are typical under normal glucose levels.

Cell composition affects pulse synchronization, especially in human islets.

Abstract

Pancreatic islets are functional units involved in glucose homeostasis. The multicellular system comprises three main cell types; $\beta$ and $\alpha$ cells reciprocally decrease and increase blood glucose by producing insulin and glucagon pulses, while the role of $\delta$ cells is less clear. Although their spatial organization and the paracrine/autocrine interactions between them have been extensively studied, the functional implications of the design principles are still lacking. In this study, we formulated a mathematical model that integrates the pulsatility of hormone secretion and the interactions and organization of islet cells and examined the effects of different cellular compositions and organizations in mouse and human islets. A common feature of both species was that islet cells produced synchronous hormone pulses under low- and high- glucose conditions, while they produced asynchronous hormone pulses under normal glucose conditions. However, the synchronous coordination of insulin and glucagon pulses at low glucose was more pronounced in human islets that had more $\alpha$ cells. When $\beta$ cells were selectively removed to mimic diabetic conditions, the anti-synchronicity of insulin and glucagon pulses was deteriorated at high glucose, but it could be partially recovered when the re-aggregation of remaining cells was considered. Finally, the third cell type, $\delta$ cells, which introduced additional complexity in the multicellular system, prevented the excessive synchronization of hormone pulses. Our computational study suggests that controllable synchronization is a design principle of pancreatic islets.