A Semi-physical Model for Glucose Kinetics and Dynamics in Subcutaneous Adipose Tissue

Abstract

In this work, a Phenomenological-Based Semi-physical Model (PBSM) for glucose dynamics and kinetics in adipose tissue is used to simulate glucose concentration in the interstitial fluid (ISF) of subcutaneous adipose tissue. This PBSM was built from analogies between physiology and process engineering, and allows adjusting parameters such as subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness, apparent glucose diffusivity, one-point postprandial blood glucose concentration and its corresponding ISF glucose concentration, maximum glucose uptake rate by adipocytes and glucose concentration at which half the maximum glucose uptake rate is achieved. Also, a comparison and analysis between ISF glucose simulated using two empirically-based models is presented. Previous results achieved using the PBSM model show that physiological delay time between glucose concentration in blood and ISF is in the order of 8-9 minutes, and the current results suggest that interstitial glucose dynamic concentration simulated using the PBSM behaves in accordance with both empirically-based models.