PHYSICAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR


TOPIC:		ANALYSIS OF BURSTING ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY IN
		PANCREATIC \beta -CELLS


SPEAKER:	ROBERT M. MIURA
		Departments of Mathematical Sciences
		  and Biomedical Engineering
		New Jersey Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT:

Pancreatic \beta -cells regulate blood glucose by secreting insulin, and
they undergo bursting electrical activity (BEA) consisting of alternating
active and silent phases in which the membrane potential undergoes rapid
oscillations and slow changes, respectively.  The rate of release of
insulin as a function of glucose concentration is closely correlated to
the plateau fraction, the ratio of the active phase duration to the total
period of the BEA.  A number of different mathematical models for BEA in
pancreatic \beta -cells have been proposed and consist of three highly
nonlinear ordinary differential equations for the membrane potential, a
conductance variable, and the intracellular calcium concentration.  In
this talk, I will outline an approximate method for computing the plateau
fraction for these models.  Comparison of this plateau fraction with
existing data permits determination of a functional dependence between a
model parameter and glucose concentration, which leads to a possible
reinterpretation of the data.


DATE:		TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2002

TIME:		2:30 PM

LOCATION:	Building 2, Room 338


Refreshments will be served at 3:30 PM in Room 2-349


Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematics
Cambridge, MA  02139