Electrophysiological evidence for coupling between β cells of pancreatic islets

IT has been shown that the β cells of pancreatic islets exhibit electrical activity when stimulated with insulin releasing agents 1–3 . There is evidence that this activity is directly correlated with the insulin release and that it has an important role in the secretory process 2,4,5 . More recentl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1976-08, Vol.262 (5568), p.502-504
Main Author: MEISSNER, H. P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action Potentials - drug effects
Animals
Glucose - pharmacology
Humanities and Social Sciences
In Vitro Techniques
Insulin - metabolism
Insulin Secretion
Islets of Langerhans - metabolism
Islets of Langerhans - physiology
letter
Membrane Potentials - drug effects
Mice
multidisciplinary
Science
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Summary:IT has been shown that the β cells of pancreatic islets exhibit electrical activity when stimulated with insulin releasing agents 1–3 . There is evidence that this activity is directly correlated with the insulin release and that it has an important role in the secretory process 2,4,5 . More recently it was documented that β cells within an islet are connected by gap junctions 6,7 which are considered as low resistance pathways (ref. 8 and refs therein). The question therefore arises whether the electrical activity can spread electrotonically from one cell to another within an islet. To further elucidate this question the electrical activity from two different cells was measured by simultaneous impalement with two microelectrodes.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/262502a0