Model studies of blood-glucose regulation

A simplified, linearized model of the system regulating blood-glucose concentrations is reviewed. This model, which predicts a damped sine wave response to an oral glucose load, lumps the large number of kinetic parameters into a much smaller number which can, at least in part, characterize the human glucose regulatory system. The predictions based on the model are compared with measurements of blood-glucose and blood-insulin concentrations during the oral glucose-tolerance test. Various other conditions are simulated and their implications are discussed in terms of the mathematical model used.