In vivo levels of insulin are oscillatory with a period of ~5–10 minutes, indicating that the islets of Langerhans within the pancreas are synchronized. While the synchronizing factors are still under investigation, one result of this behavior is expected to be coordinated and oscillatory intracellular factors, such as intracellular Ca²⁺ levels, throughout the islet population. In other cell types, oscillatory intracellular signals, like intracellular Ca²⁺, have been shown to affect specific gene expression. To test how the gene expression landscape may differ between a synchronized islet population with its reproducible intracellular oscillations and an unsynchronized islet population with heterogeneous oscillations, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to compare an islet population that had been synchronized using a glucose wave with a 5-min period, and an unsynchronized islet population. In the population exposed to the glucose wave, 58/62 islets showed synchronization as evidenced by coordinated intracellular Ca²⁺ oscillations with an average oscillation period of 5.1 min, while in the unsynchronized population 29/62 islets showed slow oscillations with an average period of 5.2 min. The synchronized islets also had a significantly smaller drift of their oscillation period during the experiment as compared to the unsynchronized population. GSEA indicated that the synchronized population had reduced expression of gene sets related to protein translation, protein turnover, energy expenditure, and insulin synthesis, while those that were related to maintenance of cell morphology were increased.

体内的胰岛素水平大约持续5-10分钟，这表明胰腺内的Langerhans胰岛是同步的。虽然同步因素仍在研究中，但预计此行为的结果是整个胰岛种群中的协调性和振荡性细胞内因子，例如细胞内Ca ²⁺水平。在其他细胞类型中，振荡性细胞内信号，例如细胞内Ca ²⁺已经显示出影响特定基因表达。为了测试在具有可重现的细胞内振荡的同步化胰岛群体与具有异源振荡的非同步化胰岛群体之间基因表达格局的差异，使用基因集富集分析（GSEA）来比较已经使用葡萄糖波同步化的胰岛群体持续5分钟，并且胰岛数量不同步。在暴露于葡萄糖波的人群中，58/62的胰岛显示出同步性，如协调的细胞内Ca ²⁺振荡的平均振荡周期为5.1分钟，而在不同步的种群29/62中，胰岛的振荡缓慢，平均周期为5.2分钟。与未同步种群相比，同步胰岛在实验过程中的振荡周期漂移也小得多。GSEA指出，同步化种群减少了与蛋白质翻译，蛋白质更新，能量消耗和胰岛素合成有关的基因集的表达，而与维持细胞形态有关的基因集却增加了。