Insulin signal transduction pathway (also known as glucose homeostasis) also exhibits oscillatory behavior. On a pathological basis, this topic is crucial to understanding certain disorders in the body such as diabetes, hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia. The functioning of a signal transduction pathway is based on extra-cellular signaling that in turn creates a response which causes other subsequent responses, hence creating a chain reaction, or cascade. During the course of signaling, the cell uses each response for accomplishing some kind of a purpose along the way. Insulin secretion mechanism is a common example of signal transduction pathway mechanism. Insulin is produced by the pancreas in a
Insulin resistance is a prominent change of metabolic conditions, under which the mother has to reduce her muscles' insulin sensitivity to spare more glucose for the brains (the mother's brain and the fetal brain). This can be achieved through raising the response threshold (i.e., postponing the onset of sensitivity) by secreting placental growth factor to interfere with the interaction between insulin receptor substrate (IRS) and PI3K, which is the essence of the so-called "adjustable threshold hypothesis" of insulin resistance. It is well known that insulin regulates the conversion of carbohydrates into fats (triglycerides) by promoting the absorption of, especially, glucose from the