Appropriate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) by pancreatic β-cells is an essential component of blood glucose homeostasis. Configuration of β-cells as 3D pseudoislets (PI) improves the GSIS response compared to 2D monolayer (ML) culture. The aim of this study was to determine the underlying mechanisms. MIN6 β-cells were grown as ML or PI for 5 days. Human islets were isolated from patients without diabetes. Function was assessed by GSIS and metabolic capacity using the Seahorse bioanalyser. Connexin 36 was downregulated using inducible shRNA. Culturing MIN6 as PI improved GSIS. MIN6 PI showed higher glucose-stimulated oxygen consumption (OCR) and extracellular acidification (ECAR) rates. Further analysis showed the higher ECAR was, at least in part, a consequence of increased glycolysis. Intact human islets also showed glucose-stimulated increases in both OCR and ECAR rates, although the latter was smaller in magnitude compared to MIN6 PI. The higher rates of glucose-stimulated ATP production in MIN6 PI were consistent with increased enzyme activity of key glycolytic and TCA cycle enzymes. There was no impact of connexin 36 knockdown on GSIS or ATP production. Configuration of β-cells as PI improves GSIS by increasing the metabolic capacity of the cells, allowing higher ATP production in response to glucose.

Dark energy is a theoretical repulsive force that counteracts gravity, possibly accelerating the expansion rate of the cosmos. Physicists propose that dark energy may be a fundamental unseen force in the universe. Like dark energy, contemporary art forms, especially in print, are expanding, fuelled by the internal energy in artists’ practices that is generated by current technologies, and the refiguring of perceptual possibilities. Like the opposing gravitational field created by dark energy, the outline of contemporary creative practice is dissolving. New ideas include a multi- level understanding of space and matter, working with time-based forms, interdependence, and an increasing distrust of absolutes. Print originated as a socially kinetic development of ideas using transfers among materials and concepts. It continues to transform with new, porous forms, including the vaporization of material into digital form. This paper considers related concepts in works of four artists: Ingrid Ledent, Oscar Munoz, Robert Smithson, and myself.