Abstract
It is well-known that blood glucose oscillates with a period of approximately 15 min (900 s) and exhibits an overall complex behaviour in intact organisms. This complexity is not thoroughly studied, and thus, we aimed to decipher the frequency bands entailed in blood glucose regulation. We explored high-resolution blood glucose time-series sampled using a novel continuous intravascular sensor in four pigs under general anaesthesia for almost 24 hours. In all time series, we found several interesting oscillatory components, especially in the 5000–10000 s, 500–1000 s, and 50–100 s regions (0.0002–0.0001 Hz, 0.002–0.001 Hz, and 0.02–0.01 Hz). The presence of these oscillations is not permanent, as they come and go. This is the first report of glucose oscillations in the 50–100 s range. The origin of these oscillations and their role in overall blood glucose regulation is unknown. Although the sample size is small, we believe this finding is important for our understanding of glucose regulation and perhaps for our understanding of general homeostatic regulation in intact organisms.
Highlights
A key feature of physiological regulation is the oscillations and pulsations that are apparent in all advanced organisms
The amount of insulin released with each burst is constantly changing depending on the current blood glucose level (BGL)
We have the developed a method to study BGL changes over time in animals with a highly accurate and quickly responding continuous intravascular sensor [13]. We found that this sensor was able to detect these small oscillations in the BGL [14]
Summary
A key feature of physiological regulation is the oscillations and pulsations that are apparent in all advanced organisms. These are believed to be of importance for several regulatory processes, and are seen in different organ systems such as the endocrine system, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the nervous system, and others. Insulin is released in synchronized bursts with a periodicity of approximately five minutes. The amount of insulin released with each burst is constantly changing depending on the current blood glucose level (BGL). Even in periods of stable BGL, the consecutive bursts are varying, possibly due to the system perturbing itself to fine-tune its regulation.
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