How is insulin secreted from the pancreas?
Insulin is secreted from the human pancreas and its release is mainly triggered when large concentrations of glucose are detected in the blood after a meal. Its main role is thus the uptake of glucose by increasing the rate of the glycolytic pathway – the process where glucose is converted to other carbohydrates that are used in the urea cycle or for fatty-acids metabolism. Glucose initially enters the β-pancreatic cells by the help of transporters known as GLUT 2 that carry the sugar across the cell membrane, so the action of glucose seems to be responsible for most of the following changes undertaken. At the beginning, an increase in the ATP/ADP ratio is observed [14], the energy currency involved in all metabolic pathways. This rise selectively affects ATP-sensitive K+ ion channels by closing them and thus preventing K+ passage across the cell membrane (Figure 4). This decreases the charge difference that already exists between the inside and outside of the membrane – the effect kno
