The endocrine pancreas is vital for controlling the metabolic state of the body. It represents a perfect example of a complex physiological regulatory system manifested at multiple organizational levels and diverse timescales. Cells of the endocrine pancreas are organized in islets of Langerhans. The most numerous cell type within these micro-organs are the insulin-producing and secreting beta cells, which fine-tune insulin supply to the organism in response to changing metabolic demands. Individual beta cells exhibit nonlinear responses, they are highly heterogeneous and possess multiple intracellular components with several feedback loops, and they are involved in crosstalk interactions with each other, with other cell types, as well as with their environment. Therefore, understanding how the collective rhythmicity is established within subpopulations of cells and how this facilitates proper insulin supply and impacts the function of the overall system at a higher organizational level is very challenging. In diabetes, structural (gap junction) and functional (calcium dynamics) networks of the islet of Langerhans are altered. Moreover, recent findings suggest that the gap junction structural network cannot be firmly derived from the functional network. These findings leave us with questions, such as: What other than the gap junction structural network contributes to the local properties of the functional network topology? Which network (structural or functional) is disrupted first in diabetes? Does location within the structural network define the highly connected nodes in the functional network? Do they have specific intrinsic properties allowing them to drive the rest of the cells?
In recent years, work in this field has stimulated interdisciplinary research collaborations, and the combinations of functional multicellular calcium imaging, computational modeling, and network science approaches were recognized as exceptionally proficient. Utilizing multicellular mathematical models along with carefully designed experiments and network analyses turned out to offer great potential to study complex endocrine regulation at multiple levels of organization. These emerging trends result from the advances in experimental technologies and computational techniques and are increasingly helping us understand the bigger picture. Ultimately, we envisage that these new perspectives and integrative frameworks developed in computational physiology will not only allow us to describe and interpret the complex organization of the pancreatic islets in both health and disease but will also reinforce the design of clinical interventions to restore normal endocrine function.
The goal of this focus issue is to identify and outline the recent advances in our understanding of how the collective rhythmicity in the pancreatic islets is regulated by multiple facets of interactions from the intracellular and intercellular level to the whole-organism scale. Theoretical as well as experimental research works that are integrated with complexity science approaches are desired. We welcome the submission of original research articles as well as reviews.
This Research Topic was formed in collaboration with the
Third International Summer Institute of Network Physiology (ISINP 2022).
The endocrine pancreas is vital for controlling the metabolic state of the body. It represents a perfect example of a complex physiological regulatory system manifested at multiple organizational levels and diverse timescales. Cells of the endocrine pancreas are organized in islets of Langerhans. The most numerous cell type within these micro-organs are the insulin-producing and secreting beta cells, which fine-tune insulin supply to the organism in response to changing metabolic demands. Individual beta cells exhibit nonlinear responses, they are highly heterogeneous and possess multiple intracellular components with several feedback loops, and they are involved in crosstalk interactions with each other, with other cell types, as well as with their environment. Therefore, understanding how the collective rhythmicity is established within subpopulations of cells and how this facilitates proper insulin supply and impacts the function of the overall system at a higher organizational level is very challenging. In diabetes, structural (gap junction) and functional (calcium dynamics) networks of the islet of Langerhans are altered. Moreover, recent findings suggest that the gap junction structural network cannot be firmly derived from the functional network. These findings leave us with questions, such as: What other than the gap junction structural network contributes to the local properties of the functional network topology? Which network (structural or functional) is disrupted first in diabetes? Does location within the structural network define the highly connected nodes in the functional network? Do they have specific intrinsic properties allowing them to drive the rest of the cells?
In recent years, work in this field has stimulated interdisciplinary research collaborations, and the combinations of functional multicellular calcium imaging, computational modeling, and network science approaches were recognized as exceptionally proficient. Utilizing multicellular mathematical models along with carefully designed experiments and network analyses turned out to offer great potential to study complex endocrine regulation at multiple levels of organization. These emerging trends result from the advances in experimental technologies and computational techniques and are increasingly helping us understand the bigger picture. Ultimately, we envisage that these new perspectives and integrative frameworks developed in computational physiology will not only allow us to describe and interpret the complex organization of the pancreatic islets in both health and disease but will also reinforce the design of clinical interventions to restore normal endocrine function.
The goal of this focus issue is to identify and outline the recent advances in our understanding of how the collective rhythmicity in the pancreatic islets is regulated by multiple facets of interactions from the intracellular and intercellular level to the whole-organism scale. Theoretical as well as experimental research works that are integrated with complexity science approaches are desired. We welcome the submission of original research articles as well as reviews.
This Research Topic was formed in collaboration with the
Third International Summer Institute of Network Physiology (ISINP 2022).
