Mathematical model helps insulin research

A mathematical model to explain the reason for slow insulin transport within skeletal muscle fibres has been developed by Ruakura scientist Dr Paul Shorten.

Insulin is an important hormone that controls glucose transport in the body. It takes about ten minutes to transport into muscle and while the reasons for it taking so long are unknown, it is of great interest due to insulin’s role in diabetes and obesity.

Scientists know that each muscle fibre consists of microscopic t-tubule networks that resemble a city roadmap. Most insulin receptors are located within these t-tubules.

The model developed by Dr Shorten points to two main reasons for the slow transport of insulin; insulin binding to insulin receptors and the twisted nature of the muscle networks, Dr Shorten explains.

“In this case we obtained unexpected new knowledge by linking our muscle modeling work to recent experimental measurements of insulin transport in muscle,” he says.

Dr Anette Becher says Paul’s discovery has led to a better understanding of the role of muscle in insulin absorption and has enabled biologists to propose new hypotheses of biological function that can be tested in the laboratory.