The Feedback Control of Glucose: On the road to type II diabetes

This paper develops a mathematical model for the feedback control of glucose regulation in the healthy human being and is based on the work of Sorensen (1985). The proposed model serves as a starting point for modeling type II diabetes. Four agents - glucose and the three hormones insulin, glucagon, and incretins - are assumed to have an effect on glucose metabolism. By letting compartments represent anatomical organs, the model has a close resemblance to a real human body. Mass balance equations that account for blood flows, exchange between compartments, and metabolic sinks and sources are written, and these result in simultaneous differential equations that are solved numerically. The metabolic sinks and sources - removing or adding glucose, insulin, glucagon, and incretins - describe physiological processes in the body. These processes function as feedback control systems and have nonlinear behaviors. The results of simulations performed for three different clinical test types indicate that the model is successful in simulating intravenous glucose, oral glucose, and meals containing mainly carbohydrates