20.500.12556/DKUM-98225 Glucose-driven intra- and inter-islet beta cell synchronization in pancreatic tissue slices Coordinated insulin secretion by the numerous islets dispersed throughout the pancreas generates the characteristic pulsatility of circulating insulin, which optimizes peripheral insulin action. While intra-islet communication is well established, the mechanisms supporting inter-islet coordination remain unclear. We investigated how different glucose stimulation patterns influence beta cell calcium dynamics across neighboring islets using multicellular calcium imaging in acute pancreatic tissue slices from NMRI mice, each containing two spatially separated islets. We compared islet responses under constant glucose stimulation and under periodic glucose pulses at either low amplitude or high amplitude. Fast, electrically driven oscillations showed no inter-islet alignment under any protocol but consistently exhibited strong coherence within each islet’s beta cell syncytium. The slow, metabolically driven component showed poor inter-islet coordination during constant glucose stimulation and under low-amplitude pulsations centered near 10 mM, but displayed partial alignment with low-amplitude pulses near the physiological range (8 mM). Robust inter-islet synchronization emerged only under high-amplitude glucose oscillations. These findings demonstrate that periodic glucose input can entrain slow β-cell rhythms across islets. However, because physiological glucose fluctuations are modest, such entrainment is unlikely to fully explain inter-islet coordination in vivo, suggesting that additional mechanisms support coherent, pulsatile insulin release at the whole-organ level. pancreatic islets beta cells insulin secretion islet synchronization calcium dynamics glucose oscillations pancreatic tissue slices pankreatični otočki beta celice izločanje inzulina sinhronizacija otočkov kalcijeva dinamika glukozne oscilacije true false true Nature Publishing Group Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Znanstveno delo 2026-05-28 09:37:59 2026-05-28 09:38:00 2026-05-29 03:17:39 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 London 0 15 str. št. članka 15808 Letn. 16 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 2026-03-26 2026-05-21 612.349.8:577.175.72 278602755 10.1038/s41598-026-46512-y 2045-2322 RAZ_Krizancic_Bombek_Lidija_2026.pdf RAZ_Krizancic_Bombek_Lidija_2026.pdf 1 BDB86DC00F14136B7E4A1D60A4346AD2 66296245999b69d851dd6e84be0044d70f349b64de17bfe487c7e375befbf46b 9a9a7e54-5a68-11f1-a150-00155d580e34 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=206494 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-46512-y 1 27eb6103-5a68-11f1-a150-00155d580e34 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=206493 Fakulteta za naravoslovje in matematiko Medicinska fakulteta 0 0 0