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Updated: Jul 16, 2026
Computer-assisted Large-scale Visualization and Quantification of Pancreatic Islet Mass, Size Distribution and Architecture
Published on: March 4, 2011
Impact of vascular density on pancreatic islet viability: a computational study
Gerardo J Félix-Martínez1, Lizbeth de la Cruz2, Daniel Whisman2
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, México City, Mexico.
Introduction:
Pancreatic islets are densely vascularized clusters of cells that secrete insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, hormones essential to glucose metabolism. The viability and function of islet cells rely on the availability of oxygen and nutrients supplied by islet capillaries. In this work, we developed a computational model of vascularized pancreatic islets, aiming to estimate the proper level of vascularization to ensure cell viability.
Methods:
The simulated islets were reconstructed from experimental data of human and mouse, with capillaries generated using a pathfinding algorithm. The number of capillaries required to maintain islet cell viability was determined by analyzing oxygen gradients resulting from cell consumption at 6- and 20-mM glucose concentrations and a varying number of capillaries.
Results:
Our simulations in human and mouse models suggest that >100 capillaries (i.e., vascular density > 5.9%) are required to maintain >96% of cells in a viable state at 6- and 20-mM glucose. From this percentage of viable cells, >75% of cells are in functional state (P O2 > 10 mmHg) at 6 mM glucose while it reduces to ∼50% at 20 mM glucose.
Discussion:
These models represent an advancement in computational models available to study islet physiology by incorporating the vascular system to enable more accurate, predictive, and physiologically relevant simulations in health, disease, and bioengineering approaches where changes in the islet vasculature are relevant. To support the broad application of the model, we provide a user-friendly computational tool where the viability of islet cells can be estimated based on a given number of capillaries, islet size and glucose level.
