Investigation of some theoretical models relating the concentrations of glucose and insulin in plasma

Abstract

In this survey 24 possible theoretical models for the regulation of plasma glucose concentration by plasma insulin concentration have been proposed and tested. A set of data, consisting of plasma glucose concentrations at various times after an intravenous injection of glucose, was selected from the literature. An attempt was made to fit each model to the chosen data using a digital computer program and ten of these were successful. The behaviour of these ten models under different experimental conditions was compared, using a simulation technique, with further published data. At this stage six models were consistent with a steady state at the start or the end of an experiment, but only three were reasonably good at predicting all aspects of the chosen experiments. One was particularly good. Two other sets of data were taken from the literature and the six best models were fitted in order to calculate replicate values of the physiological parameters.