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Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells

The endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary gland are electrically active when stimulated or, in some cases, when not inhibited. The activity pattern thought to be most effective in releasing hormones is bursting, which consists of depolarization with small spikes that are much longer than single...

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Autores principales: Fazli, Mehran, Bertram, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9299381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35872987
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.936160
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author Fazli, Mehran
Bertram, Richard
author_facet Fazli, Mehran
Bertram, Richard
author_sort Fazli, Mehran
collection PubMed
description The endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary gland are electrically active when stimulated or, in some cases, when not inhibited. The activity pattern thought to be most effective in releasing hormones is bursting, which consists of depolarization with small spikes that are much longer than single spikes. Although a majority of the research on cellular activity patterns has been performed on dispersed cells, the environment in situ is characterized by networks of coupled cells of the same type, at least in the case of somatotrophs and lactotrophs. This produces some degree of synchronization of their activity, which can be greatly increased by hormones and changes in the physiological state. In this computational study, we examine how electrical coupling among model cells influences synchronization of bursting oscillations among the population. We focus primarily on weak electrical coupling, since strong coupling leads to complete synchronization that is not characteristic of pituitary cell networks. We first look at small networks to point out several unexpected behaviors of the coupled system, and then consider a larger random scale-free network to determine what features of the structural network formed through gap junctional coupling among cells produce a high degree of functional coupling, i.e., clusters of synchronized cells. We employ several network centrality measures, and find that cells that are closely related in terms of their closeness centrality are most likely to be synchronized. We also find that structural hubs (cells with extensive coupling to other cells) are typically not functional hubs (cells synchronized with many other cells). Overall, in the case of weak electrical coupling, it is hard to predict the functional network that arises from a structural network, or to use a functional network as a means for determining the structural network that gives rise to it.
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spelling pubmed-92993812022-07-21 Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells Fazli, Mehran Bertram, Richard Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) Endocrinology The endocrine cells of the anterior pituitary gland are electrically active when stimulated or, in some cases, when not inhibited. The activity pattern thought to be most effective in releasing hormones is bursting, which consists of depolarization with small spikes that are much longer than single spikes. Although a majority of the research on cellular activity patterns has been performed on dispersed cells, the environment in situ is characterized by networks of coupled cells of the same type, at least in the case of somatotrophs and lactotrophs. This produces some degree of synchronization of their activity, which can be greatly increased by hormones and changes in the physiological state. In this computational study, we examine how electrical coupling among model cells influences synchronization of bursting oscillations among the population. We focus primarily on weak electrical coupling, since strong coupling leads to complete synchronization that is not characteristic of pituitary cell networks. We first look at small networks to point out several unexpected behaviors of the coupled system, and then consider a larger random scale-free network to determine what features of the structural network formed through gap junctional coupling among cells produce a high degree of functional coupling, i.e., clusters of synchronized cells. We employ several network centrality measures, and find that cells that are closely related in terms of their closeness centrality are most likely to be synchronized. We also find that structural hubs (cells with extensive coupling to other cells) are typically not functional hubs (cells synchronized with many other cells). Overall, in the case of weak electrical coupling, it is hard to predict the functional network that arises from a structural network, or to use a functional network as a means for determining the structural network that gives rise to it. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9299381/ /pubmed/35872987 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.936160 Text en Copyright © 2022 Fazli and Bertram https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Endocrinology
Fazli, Mehran
Bertram, Richard
Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells
title Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells
title_full Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells
title_fullStr Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells
title_full_unstemmed Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells
title_short Network Properties of Electrically Coupled Bursting Pituitary Cells
title_sort network properties of electrically coupled bursting pituitary cells
topic Endocrinology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9299381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35872987
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.936160
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