1. Critical transitions in pancreatic isletsDean Korošak, Sandra Postić, Andraž Stožer, Boštjan Podobnik, Marjan Rupnik, 2025, original scientific article Abstract: Calcium signals in pancreatic � cell collectives show a sharp transition from uncorrelated to correlated state resembling a phase transition as the slowly increasing glucose concentration crosses the tipping point. However, the exact nature or the order of this phase transition is not well understood. Using confocal microscopy to record the collective calcium activation of � cells in an intact islet under changing glucose concentration in an increasing and then decreasing way, we first show that in, addition to the sharp transition, the coordinated calcium response exhibits a hysteresis indicating a critical, first-order transition. A network model of � cells combining link selection and coordination mechanisms capture the observed hysteresis loop and the critical nature of the transition. Our results point towards an understanding of the role of islets as tipping elements in the pancreas that, interconnected by perfusion, diffusion, and innervation, cause the tipping dynamics and abrupt insulin release. Keywords: cellular organization, physiology & dynamics, phase transitions in biological systems, complex networks, endocrine system, optical microscopy Published in DKUM: 19.03.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 2
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2. NMDA receptor inhibition increases, synchronizes, and stabilizes the collective pancreatic beta cell activity : insights through multilayer network analysisMarko Šterk, Lidija Križančić Bombek, Maša Skelin, Marjan Rupnik, Marko Marhl, Andraž Stožer, Marko Gosak, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: NMDA receptors promote repolarization in pancreatic beta cells and thereby reduce glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Therefore, NMDA receptors are a potential therapeutic target for diabetes. While the mechanism of NMDA receptor inhibition in beta cells is rather well understood at the molecular level, its possible effects on the collective cellular activity have not been addressed to date, even though proper insulin secretion patterns result from well-synchronized beta cell behavior. The latter is enabled by strong intercellular connectivity, which governs propagating calcium waves across the islets and makes the heterogeneous beta cell population work in synchrony. Since a disrupted collective activity is an important and possibly early contributor to impaired insulin secretion and glucose intolerance, it is of utmost importance to understand possible effects of NMDA receptor inhibition on beta cell functional connectivity. To address this issue, we combined confocal functional
multicellular calcium imaging in mouse tissue slices with network science approaches. Our results revealed that NMDA receptor inhibition increases, synchronizes, and stabilizes beta cell activity without affecting the velocity or size of calcium waves. To explore intercellular interactions more precisely, we made use of the multilayer network formalism by regarding each calcium wave as an individual network layer, with weighted directed connections portraying the intercellular propagation. NMDA receptor inhibition stabilized both the role of wave initiators and the course of waves. The findings obtained with the experimental antagonist of NMDA receptors, MK-801, were additionally validated with dextrorphan, the active metabolite of the approved drug dextromethorphan, as well as with experiments on NMDA receptor KO mice. In sum, our results provide additional and new evidence for a possible
role of NMDA receptor inhibition in treatment of type 2 diabetes and introduce the multilayer network paradigm as a general strategy to examine effects of drugs on connectivity in multicellular systems. Keywords: pancreas, beta cells, insulin, Islets of Langerhans Published in DKUM: 29.11.2024; Views: 0; Downloads: 2
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3. Glucose-dependent activation, activity, and deactivation of beta cell networks in acute mouse pancreas tissue slicesAndraž Stožer, Maša Skelin, Marko Gosak, Lidija Križančić Bombek, Viljem Pohorec, Marjan Rupnik, Jurij Dolenšek, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: Many details of glucose-stimulated intracellular calcium changes in [beta] cells during activation, activity, and deactivation, as well as their concentration-dependence, remain to be analyzed. Classical physiological experiments indicated that in islets, functional differences between individual cells are largely attenuated, but recent findings suggest considerable intercellular heterogeneity, with some cells possibly coordinating the collective responses. To address the above with an emphasis on heterogeneity and describing the relations between classical physiological and functional network properties, we performed functional multicellular calcium imaging in mouse pancreas tissue slices over a wide range of glucose concentrations. During activation, delays to activation of cells and any-cell-to-first-responder delays are shortened, and the sizes of simultaneously responding clusters increased with increasing glucose concentrations. Exactly the opposite characterized deactivation. The frequency of fast calcium oscillations during activity increased with increasing glucose up to 12 mM glucose concentration, beyond which oscillation duration became longer, resulting in a homogenous increase in active time. In terms of functional connectivity, islets progressed from a very segregated network to a single large functional unit with increasing glucose concentration. A comparison between classical physiological and network parameters revealed that the first-responders during activation had longer active times during plateau and the most active cells during the plateau tended to deactivate later. Cells with the most functional connections tended to activate sooner, have longer active times, and deactivate later. Our findings provide a common ground for recent differing views on [beta] cell heterogeneity and an important baseline for future studies of stimulus-secretion and intercellular coupling.
NEW & NOTEWORTHY: We assessed concentration-dependence in coupled [beta] cells, degree of functional heterogeneity, and uncovered possible specialized subpopulations during the different phases of the response to glucose at the level of many individual cells. To this aim, we combined acute mouse pancreas tissue slices with functional multicellular calcium imaging over a wide range from threshold (7 mM) and physiological (8 and 9 mM) to supraphysiological (12 and 16 mM) glucose concentrations, classical physiological, and advanced network analyses. Keywords: beta cells, calcium imaging, glucose-dependence, network analysis Published in DKUM: 15.10.2024; Views: 0; Downloads: 18
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4. Dual mode of action of acetylcholine on cytosolic calcium oscillations in pancreatic beta and acinar cells in situNastja Sluga, Sandra Postić, Srdjan Sarikas, Ya-Chi Huang, Andraž Stožer, Marjan Rupnik, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: Cholinergic innervation in the pancreas controls both the release of digestive enzymes to support the intestinal digestion and absorption, as well as insulin release to promote nutrient use in the cells of the body. The effects of muscarinic receptor stimulation are described in detail for endocrine beta cells and exocrine acinar cells separately. Here we describe morphological and functional criteria to separate these two cell types in situ in tissue slices and simultaneously measure their response to ACh stimulation on cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations [Ca2+]c in stimulatory glucose conditions. Our results show that both cell types respond to glucose directly in the concentration range compatible with the glucose transporters they express. The physiological ACh concentration increases the frequency of glucose stimulated [Ca2+]c oscillations in both cell types and synchronizes [Ca2+]c oscillations in acinar cells. The supraphysiological ACh concentration further increases the oscillation frequency on the level of individual beta cells, inhibits the synchronization between these cells, and abolishes oscillatory activity in acinar cells. We discuss possible mechanisms leading to the observed phenomena. Keywords: pancreas tissue slices, acetylcholine, beta cell, acinar cell, Ca2+ oscillations Published in DKUM: 14.10.2024; Views: 0; Downloads: 17
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5. Physiological levels of adrenaline fail to stop pancreatic beta cell activity at unphysiologically high glucose levelsNastja Sluga, Lidija Križančić Bombek, Jasmina Kerčmar, Srdjan Sarikas, Sandra Postić, Johannes Pfabe, Maša Skelin, Dean Korošak, Andraž Stožer, Marjan Rupnik, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: Adrenaline inhibits insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells to allow an organism to cover immediate energy needs by unlocking internal nutrient reserves. The stimulation of α2-adrenergic receptors on the plasma membrane of beta cells reduces their excitability and insulin secretion mostly through diminished cAMP production and downstream desensitization of late step(s) of exocytotic machinery to cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]c). In most studies unphysiologically high adrenaline concentrations have been used to evaluate the role of adrenergic stimulation in pancreatic endocrine cells. Here we report the effect of physiological adrenaline levels on [Ca2+]c dynamics in beta cell collectives in mice pancreatic tissue slice preparation. We used confocal microscopy with a high spatial and temporal resolution to evaluate glucose-stimulated [Ca2+]c events and their sensitivity to adrenaline. We investigated glucose concentrations from 8-20 mM to assess the concentration of adrenaline that completely abolishes [Ca2+]c events. We show that 8 mM glucose stimulation of beta cell collectives is readily inhibited by the concentration of adrenaline available under physiological conditions, and that sequent stimulation with 12 mM glucose or forskolin in high nM range overrides this inhibition. Accordingly, 12 mM glucose stimulation required at least an order of magnitude higher adrenaline concentration above the physiological level to inhibit the activity. To conclude, higher glucose concentrations stimulate beta cell activity in a non-linear manner and beyond levels that could be inhibited with physiologically available plasma adrenaline concentration. Keywords: adrenaline, islets, beta cells, cAMP, concentration dependency, [Ca2+]c oscillations, forskolin Published in DKUM: 04.07.2024; Views: 155; Downloads: 14
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6. pH-dependence of glucose- dependent activity of beta cell networks in acute mouse pancreatic tissue sliceSandra Postić, Marko Gosak, Wen-Hao Tsai, Johannes Pfabe, Srdjan Sarikas, Andraž Stožer, Dean Korošak, Shi-Bing Yang, Marjan Rupnik, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: Extracellular pH has the potential to affect various aspects of the pancreatic beta cell function. To explain this effect, a number of mechanisms was proposed involving both extracellular and intracellular targets and pathways. Here, we focus on reassessing the influence of extracellular pH on glucose-dependent beta cell activation and collective activity in physiological conditions. To this end we employed mouse pancreatic tissue slices to perform high-temporally resolved functional imaging of cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations. We investigated the effect of either physiological H+ excess or depletion on the activation properties as well as on the collective activity of beta cell in an islet. Our results indicate that lowered pH invokes activation of a subset of beta cells in substimulatory glucose concentrations, enhances the average activity of beta cells, and alters the beta cell network properties in an islet. The enhanced average activity of beta cells was determined indirectly utilizing cytosolic Ca2+ imaging, while direct measuring of insulin secretion confirmed that this enhanced activity is accompanied by a higher insulin release. Furthermore, reduced functional connectivity and higher functional segregation at lower pH, both signs of a reduced intercellular communication, do not necessary result in an impaired insulin release. Keywords: insulin secretion, membrane excitability, potassium channels, beta cell network, collective activity, calcium waves, pancreatic islets, pH-dependence Published in DKUM: 01.07.2024; Views: 149; Downloads: 6
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7. The effect of forskolin and the role of Epac2A during activation, activity, and deactivation of beta cell networksMaša Skelin, Jurij Dolenšek, Lidija Križančić Bombek, Viljem Pohorec, Marko Gosak, Marjan Rupnik, Andraž Stožer, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: Beta cells couple stimulation by glucose with insulin secretion and impairments in this coupling play a central role in diabetes mellitus. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) amplifies stimulus-secretion coupling via protein kinase A and guanine nucleotide exchange protein 2 (Epac2A). With the present research, we aimed to clarify the influence of cAMP-elevating diterpene forskolin on cytoplasmic calcium dynamics and intercellular network activity, which are two of the crucial elements of normal beta cell stimulus-secretion coupling, and the role of Epac2A under normal and stimulated conditions. To this end, we performed functional multicellular calcium imaging of beta cells in mouse pancreas tissue slices after stimulation with glucose and forskolin in wild-type and Epac2A knock-out mice. Forskolin evoked calcium signals in otherwise substimulatory glucose and beta cells from Epac2A knock-out mice displayed a faster activation. During the plateau phase, beta cells from Epac2A knock-out mice displayed a slightly higher active time in response to glucose compared with wild-type littermates, and stimulation with forskolin increased the active time via an increase in oscillation frequency and a decrease in oscillation duration in both Epac2A knock-out and wild-type mice. Functional network properties during stimulation with glucose did not differ in Epac2A knock-out mice, but the presence of Epac2A was crucial for the protective effect of stimulation with forskolin in preventing a decline in beta cell functional connectivity with time. Finally, stimulation with forskolin prolonged beta cell activity during deactivation, especially in Epac2A knock-out mice. Keywords: pancreas, tissue slices, beta cells, calcium imaging, amplifying pathway, forskolin, Epac2A KO, intercellular network Published in DKUM: 27.05.2024; Views: 193; Downloads: 14
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8. Functional characteristics of hub and wave-initiator cells in ▫$\beta$▫ cell networksMarko Šterk, Jurij Dolenšek, Maša Skelin, Lidija Križančić Bombek, Eva Paradiž, Jasmina Kerčmar, Matjaž Perc, Marjan Rupnik, Andraž Stožer, Marko Gosak, 2023, original scientific article Keywords: islets of Langerhans, beta cells, insulin Published in DKUM: 12.12.2023; Views: 578; Downloads: 21
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9. Vpliv rastnih faktorjev in zaviralcev fibrotičnega tipa celjenja na keratocite v celičnih modelih roženične raneTomislav Šarenac, 2018, doctoral dissertation Abstract: Celjenje roženičnih ran je pogosto omejeno s fibrozo in tvorjenjem brazgotin, ki jih lahko povzroča transformni rastni faktor β (angl. transforming growth factor – TGF). Nadzirana fibroza, ki jo lahko usmerimo z inzulinu podobnim rastnim faktorjem – 1 (angl. insulin-like growth factor – IGF) in protifibrotičnimi učinkovinami, bi lahko prispevala k ohranjanju prozornosti roženice med celjenjem. S pomočjo stimulacije primarnih človeških keratocitov s TGF-β v brezserumskem gojitvenem mediju smo ustvarili celični model roženične stromalne rane. S slikovno pretočno citometrijo smo analizirali posamezne celice iz celičnih kultur in določali stopnjo nuklearizacije Smad3 in znotrajcelično fluorescenčno intenziteto obarvanega Smad7 in roženičnega Kristalina – aldehidne dehidrogenaze 3A1. Pri preučevanju izločanja proteoglikanov Biglikana in Keratokana v zunajcelični matriks smo uporabili teste ELISA. Skupaj s stimulacijo s TGF-β smo celice obravnavali samo z IGF-1, s suberoilanilidehidroksiamično kislino (SAHA) ali halouginonom; ločenim populacijam smo poleg protifibrotikov dodali še IGF-1. Pri samostojni obravnavi z IGF-1 smo ugotovili zmanjšano translokacijo Smad3 in zvišano količino Aldehidne dehidrogenaze 3A1 znotraj celic. Poleg tega je bilo izločanje proteoglikanov prav tako ugodno za ustvarjanje pogojev prozornosti. SAHA je povzročila zvišanje Smad7 v celicah in inhibirala translokacijo Smad3 v jedra – tudi v kombinaciji z IGF-1. Imunofluorescenčna mikroskopija je pokazala, da je dodatek IGF-1 in v kombinaciji s protifibrotičnimi učinkovinami zavrl transdiferenciacijo v miofibroblaste in spodbudil nastanek fibroblastov. TGF-β/ Smad signalna pot fibroze in zamotnjenosti roženice je bila inhibirana s strani IGF-1; še posebej ob dodatku SAHA kakor tudi s halofuginonom. Zaključujemo, da bi lahko IGF-1 uspešno dodali k zdravljenju s protifibrotičnimi učinkovinami, kar bi omogočilo boljše celjenje roženične rane in tvorbo bolj prozornega tkiva. Keywords: Roženica, keratocit, miofibroblast, fibroza, celjenje ran, TGF-b, IGF-1, SAHA, halofuginon, Smad, celična kultura, slikovna pretočna citometrija Published in DKUM: 14.01.2019; Views: 1884; Downloads: 246
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10. Collective sensing of ß-cells generates the metabolic codeDean Korošak, Marjan Rupnik, 2018, original scientific article Keywords: collective sensing, pancreatic islets, spin glass models, metabolic code, Ca2+ imaging, Ca2+ signaling, correlations, intercellular communication Published in DKUM: 25.01.2018; Views: 1646; Downloads: 130
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