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Glucose-induced period-doubling cascade in the electrical activity of pancreatic β-cells

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Abstract

 In the presence of stimulatory concentrations of glucose, the membrane potential of pancreatic β-cells may experience a transition from periods of rapid spike-like oscillations alternating with a pseudo-steady state to spike-only oscillations. Insulin secretion from β-cells closely correlates the periods of spike-like oscillations. The purpose of this paper is to study the mathematical structure which underlines this transitional stage in a pancreatic β-cell model. It is demonstrated that the transition can be chaotic but becomes more and more regular with increase in glucose. In particular, the system undergoes a reversed period-doubling cascade leading to the spike-only oscillations as the glucose concentration crosses a threshold. The transition interval in glucose concentration is estimated to be extremely small in terms of the rate of change for the calcium dynamics in the β-cells. The methods are based on the theory of unimodal maps and the geometric and asymptotic theories of singular perturbations.

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Received: 25 October 1996/Revised version: 18 August 1997

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Deng, B. Glucose-induced period-doubling cascade in the electrical activity of pancreatic β-cells. J Math Biol 38, 21–78 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002850050141

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002850050141

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