The effect of unhealthy β-cells in synchronized insulin secretion

Insulin secreted by pancreatic islet β-cells is the principal regulating hormone of glucose metabolism. It plays a key role in controlling glucose level in blood. Impairment of the pancreatic islet function may cause glucose to accumulate in the blood, and result in diabetes mellitus. In order to study the cause of dysfunction of pancreatic islets, a multiple-cell model containing healthy and unhealthy cells is proposed based on an existing single cell model. The β-cells in the model are connected through direct electrical connections between neighboring β-cells. The simulation results show that around 20% unhealthy cells in pancreatic islets will disrupt the insulin secretion. This suggests that a small portion of unhealthy cells may have greater effect in the dysfunction of insulin oscillation than expected.