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How Noise and Coupling Induce Bursting Action Potentials in Pancreatic ß-Cells

Junghyo Jo ^*, Hyuk Kang ^*, Moo Young Choi ^*  and Duk-Su Koh 

^* Department of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea; Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul, Korea; and Department of Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to M. Y. Choi, Dept. of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Korea; and Korea Institute for Advanced Study, Seoul 130-722, Korea. E-mail: mychoi{at}snu.ac.kr.

Unlike isolated ß-cells, which usually produce continuous spikes or fast and irregular bursts, electrically coupled ß-cells are apt to exhibit robust bursting action potentials. We consider the noise induced by thermal fluctuations as well as that by channel-gating stochasticity and examine its effects on the action potential behavior of the ß-cell model. It is observed numerically that such noise in general helps single cells to produce a variety of electrical activities. In addition, we also probe coupling via gap junctions between neighboring cells, with heterogeneity induced by noise, to find that it enhances regular bursts.

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