Comment on Satin et al. “Take Me To Your Leader”: An Electrophysiological Appraisal of the Role of Hub Cells in Pancreatic Islets. Diabetes 2020;69:830–836
Guy A. Rutter, Nikolay Ninov, Victoria Salem, David J. Hodson
Abstract
Satin et al. (1) present a critique of a recent model for “hub/follower” dynamics in intra-islet regulation of insulin secretion presented in two recent articles from our laboratories (2,3). Based on older work and our own demonstrations of heterogeneity between individual β-cells, these studies used a combination of multicellular Ca2+ imaging, network theory, and interventional approaches to demonstrate that a subpopulation of β-cells within the islet displays earlier responses to stimulation with glucose and is required for fully coordinated behavior across sections of the islet. Studies from others using some of these approaches have reached broadly similar conclusions (4,5). The critique of Satin et al. (1) is based in large …