Computational Reconstruction of Pancreatic Islets as a Tool for Structural and Functional Analysis

Structural properties of pancreatic islets are key for the functional response of insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin-secreting cells, due to their implications in intraislet communication via electric, paracrine, and autocrine signaling. In this protocol, the three-dimensional architecture of a pancreatic islet is firstly reconstructed from experimental data using a novel computational algorithm. Next, the morphological and connectivity properties of the reconstructed islet, such as the number and percentages of the different type of cells, cellular volume, and cell-to-cell contacts, are obtained. Then, network theory is used to describe the connectivity properties of the islet through network-derived metrics such as average degree, clustering coefficient, density, diameter, and efficiency. Finally, all these properties are functionally evaluated through computational simulations using a model of coupled oscillators. Overall, here we describe a step-by-step workflow, implemented in IsletLab, a multiplatform application developed specifically for the study and simulation of pancreatic islets, to apply a novel computational methodology to characterize and analyze pancreatic islets as a complement to the experimental work.