Project description:This a model from the article: Glucose sensing in the pancreatic beta cell: a computational systems analysis. Fridlyand LE, Philipson LH.Theor Biol Med Model.2010 May 24;7:15. 20497556, Abstract: BACKGROUND: Pancreatic beta-cells respond to rising blood glucose by increasing oxidative metabolism, leading to an increased ATP/ADP ratio in the cytoplasm. This leads to a closure of KATP channels, depolarization of the plasma membrane, influx of calcium and the eventual secretion of insulin. Such mechanism suggests that beta-cell metabolism should have a functional regulation specific to secretion, as opposed to coupling to contraction. The goal of this work is to uncover contributions of the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial processes in this secretory coupling mechanism using mathematical modeling in a systems biology approach. METHODS: We describe a mathematical model of beta-cell sensitivity to glucose. The cytoplasmic part of the model includes equations describing glucokinase, glycolysis, pyruvate reduction, NADH and ATP production and consumption. The mitochondrial part begins with production of NADH, which is regulated by pyruvate dehydrogenase. NADH is used in the electron transport chain to establish a proton motive force, driving the F1F0 ATPase. Redox shuttles and mitochondrial Ca2+ handling were also modeled. RESULTS: The model correctly predicts changes in the ATP/ADP ratio, Ca2+ and other metabolic parameters in response to changes in substrate delivery at steady-state and during cytoplasmic Ca2+ oscillations. Our analysis of the model simulations suggests that the mitochondrial membrane potential should be relatively lower in beta cells compared with other cell types to permit precise mitochondrial regulation of the cytoplasmic ATP/ADP ratio. This key difference may follow from a relative reduction in respiratory activity. The model demonstrates how activity of lactate dehydrogenase, uncoupling proteins and the redox shuttles can regulate beta-cell function in concert; that independent oscillations of cytoplasmic Ca2+ can lead to slow coupled metabolic oscillations; and that the relatively low production rate of reactive oxygen species in beta-cells under physiological conditions is a consequence of the relatively decreased mitochondrial membrane potential. CONCLUSION: This comprehensive model predicts a special role for mitochondrial control mechanisms in insulin secretion and ROS generation in the beta cell. The model can be used for testing and generating control hypotheses and will help to provide a more complete understanding of beta-cell glucose-sensing central to the physiology and pathology of pancreatic beta-cells. This model was taken from the Vcell MathModel directory and was converted to SBML This model originates from BioModels Database: A Database of Annotated Published Models (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/biomodels/). It is copyright (c) 2005-2011 The BioModels.net Team. For more information see the terms of use. To cite BioModels Database, please use: Li C, Donizelli M, Rodriguez N, Dharuri H, Endler L, Chelliah V, Li L, He E, Henry A, Stefan MI, Snoep JL, Hucka M, Le Novère N, Laibe C (2010) BioModels Database: An enhanced, curated and annotated resource for published quantitative kinetic models. BMC Syst Biol., 4:92.

Project description:Chronic low-grade inflammation is a hallmark of aging, but its etiology is not well understood. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been linked to both cellular senescence and age-related inflammation or inflammaging but fundamental mechanisms underlying these links are unclear. We analyzed age-related gene expression in different human tissues and discovered that in blood, the mRNA expression of Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter (MCU) and its regulatory subunit MICU1 correlated inversely with age. MCU is the pore-forming subunit of a Ca2+-selective ion channel complex residing in the mitochondrial inner membrane and is the main conduit for Ca2+-influx into the mitochondrial matrix. Based on these findings we tested the simple hypothesis that mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake capacity of macrophages decreases with age. We found a significant reduction in the mitochondrial Ca2+-uptake capacity of macrophages derived from aged (80-90 weeks) mice. Notably, these macrophages display amplified cytosolic Ca2+ elevations and increased inflammatory output. To test the salience of mitochondrial calcium uptake in regulating macrophage inflammatory output, we deleted Mcu selectively in macrophages. The Mcu-/- macrophages of young mice (<25 weeks) express more inflammatory genes at baseline and show a hyper-inflammatory response when stimulated. We show that reduced mitochondrial Ca2+ amplifies cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations and potentiates downstream NFkB activation, which is central to inflammation. The regulation of inflammatory response by mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake is also seen readily in human macrophages. The siRNA-mediated knockdown of MCU in human blood derived macrophages recapitulates the phenomenon – the mitochondrial Ca2+-uptake is greatly reduced, cytosolic Ca2+ elevations are more pronounced, and the macrophages are hyper-inflammatory. Our findings pinpoint the MCU complex as a keystone molecular apparatus that links age-related changes in mitochondrial physiology to macrophage-mediated inflammation. Resident macrophages are intrinsic to every organ system and the steady erosion of their mitochondrial Ca2+-uptake capacity may play a germinal or exacerbating role in many age-related neurodegenerative, cardiometabolic, renal and musculoskeletal diseases that afflict us.

Dataset Information

Magnus1997_MitoCa_BetaCellMinimalModel

Publications

Minimal model of beta-cell mitochondrial Ca2+ handling.

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