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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy of Calcium Dynamics in Acute Mouse Pancreatic Tissue Slices
Published on: April 13, 2021
Similarities of K+ATP channel expression and Ca2+ changes in pancreatic beta cells and hypothalamic neurons
Paul E Squires1, Dev Churamani, Rebecca Pararajasingam
1Molecular Physiology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom. psquires@bio.warwick.ac.uk
Abstract:
The mechanisms through which pancreatic beta cells recognize and respond to changes in circulating glucose are well understood. Evidence is accumulating that a subpopulation of neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) use similar cellular mechanisms to sense changes in extracellular glucose. In the present study, we used PCR and single-cell calcium imaging techniques to investigate whether glucose-sensing cells in the pancreas and hypothalamus employ a similar set of stimulus-response elements. Dispersed cells from mouse pancreata and hypothalamus were used in conjunction with the insulin-secreting cell line MIN6. We present functional data suggesting that both pancreatic and a subpopulation of hypothalamic cells exhibit glucose- and tolbutamide-evoked changes in cytosolic calcium and consider some clinical implications of different glucose sensors using the same mechanisms.
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