Spatial and temporal coordination of insulin granule exocytosis in intact human pancreatic islets.

ABSTRACT:

Aims/hypothesis

Insulin secretion is widely studied because it plays a central role in glucose homeostasis and diabetes. Processes from insulin granule fusion in beta cells to in vivo insulin secretion have been elucidated, but data at the cellular level do not fully account for several aspects of the macroscopic secretory pattern. Here we investigated how individual secretory events are coordinated spatially and temporally within intact human islets.

Methods

We used the fluorescent probe neuropeptide Y (NPY)-pHluorin to visualise insulin granule secretion in isolated intact human islets.

Results

We found that individual beta cells respond to increases in glucose concentration by releasing insulin granules in very discrete bursts with periods consistent with in vivo p

SUBMITTER: Almaca J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6132229 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature