Some oscillatory phenomena of blood glucose regulation: An exploratory pilot study in pigs

Abstract

It is well-known that blood glucose oscillates with a period of approximately 15 min (900 s) and exhibits an overall complex behaviour in intact organisms. This complexity is not thoroughly studied, and thus, we aimed to decipher the frequency bands entailed in blood glucose regulation. We explored high-resolution blood glucose time-series sampled using a novel continuous intravascular sensor in four pigs under general anaesthesia for almost 24 hours. In all time series, we found several interesting oscillatory components, especially in the 5000-10000 s, 500-1000 s, and 50-100 s regions (0.0002-0.0001 Hz, 0.002-0.001 Hz, and 0.02-0.01 Hz). The presence of these oscillations is not permanent, as they come and go. This is the first report of glucose oscillations in the 50-100 s range. The origin of these oscillations and their role in overall blood glucose regulation is unknown. Although the sample size is small, we believe this finding is important for our understanding of glucose regulation and perhaps for our understanding of general homeostatic regulation in intact organisms.