ArticlePhysical biology2013
The fractal spatial distribution of pancreatic islets in three dimensions: a self-avoiding growth model.
Article in Physical biology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Integrated histopathology of the human pancreas throughout stages of type 1 diabetes progression.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Integrated histopathology of the human pancreas throughout stages of type 1 diabetes progression.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Fractal nature of human gastrointestinal system: Exploring a new era.World journal of gastroenterology · 2023Review
- Biofabrication strategies for creating microvascular complexity.Biofabrication · 2019Review
- Stereological analyses of the whole human pancreas.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Dissecting Human Gene Functions Regulating Islet Development With Targeted Gene Transduction.Diabetes · 2015Article
- Development, growth and maintenance of β-cell mass: models are also part of the story.Molecular aspects of medicine · 2015Review
- Fractal dimension of chromatin: potential molecular diagnostic applications for cancer prognosis.Expert review of molecular diagnostics · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The islets of Langerhans, responsible for controlling blood glucose levels, are dispersed within the pancreas. A universal power law governing the fractal spatial distribution of islets in two-dimensional pancreatic sections has been reported. However, the fractal geometry in the actual three-dimensional pancreas volume, and the developmental process that gives rise to such a self-similar structure, has not been investigated. Here, we examined the three-dimensional spatial distribution of islets in intact mouse pancreata using optical projection tomography and found a power law with a fractal dimension of 2.1. Furthermore, based on two-dimensional pancreatic sections of human autopsies, we found that the distribution of human islets also follows a universal power law with a fractal dimension of 1.5 in adult pancreata, which agrees with the value previously reported in smaller mammalian pancreas sections. Finally, we developed a self-avoiding growth model for the development of the islet distribution and found that the fractal nature of the spatial islet distribution may be associated with the self-avoidance in the branching process of vascularization in the pancreas.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.