Glycemia Regulation: From Feedback Loops to Organizational Closure

Autor: Matteo Mossio, Leonardo Bich, Ana M. Soto
Přispěvatelé: Universidad del Pais Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea [Espagne] (UPV/EHU), Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (UP1)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), La République des savoirs : Lettres, Sciences, Philosophie, Collège de France (CdF (institution))-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département de Philosophie - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
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Frontiers in Physiology
Frontiers in Physiology, Frontiers, 2020, 11, ⟨10.3389/fphys.2020.00069⟩
Frontiers in Physiology, Vol 11 (2020)
ISSN: 1664-042X
DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00069
Popis: Endocrinologists apply the idea of feedback loops to explain how hormones regulate certain bodily functions such as glucose metabolism. In particular, feedback loops focus on the maintenance of the plasma concentrations of glucose within a narrow range. Here, we put forward a different, organicist perspective on the endocrine regulation of glycaemia, by relying on the pivotal concept of closure of constraints. From this perspective, biological systems are understood as organized ones, which means that they are constituted of a set of mutually dependent functional structures acting as constraints, whose maintenance depends on their reciprocal interactions. Closure refers specifically to the mutual dependence among functional constraints in an organism. We show that, when compared to feedback loops, organizational closure can generate much richer descriptions of the processes and constraints at play in the metabolism and regulation of glycaemia, by making explicit the different hierarchical orders involved. We expect that the proposed theoretical framework will open the way to the construction of original mathematical models, which would provide a better understanding of endocrine regulation from an organicist perspective. The authors acknowledge funding from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Spain ('Ramon y Cajal' Programme RYC-2016-19798 to LB), Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), Spain (research project FFI2014-52173-P to LB), the Basque Government (Project: IT1228-19 to LB), and the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (grants ES026283 and ES030045 to AS). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Databáze: OpenAIRE