A model of glucose kinetics and their control by insulin. Compartmental and noncompartmental approaches.

Compartmental and noncompartmentalmodels are used to quantify, from multiple steady-state tracer experiments, glucosekinetics and the effect of insulin upon them. Some aspects of experiment design are discussed. A physiological three-compartment model of glucosekinetics is proposed which provides a new quantitative picture of insulincontrol of glucose metabolism. Noncompartmental modeling is shown to have structural errors which prevent physiological insight. Compartmentalmodels make a better use of the informational content of kinetic data, even if more demanding both in terms of modeling and computational effort and in terms of physiological thinking.