How Noise and Coupling Induce Bursting Action Potentials in Pancreatic beta-cells

Unlike isolated beta-cells, which usually produce continuous spikes or fast and irregular bursts, electrically coupled beta-cells are apt to exhibit robust bursting action potentials. We consider the noise induced by thermal fluctuations as well as that by channel gating stochasticity and examine its effects on the action potential behavior of the beta-cell model. It is observed numerically that such noise in general helps single cells to produce a variety of electrical activities. In addition, we also probe coupling via gap junctions between neighboring cells,with heterogeneity induced by noise, to find that it enhances regular bursts.