Abstract. The glucose sensitivity of bursting electrical activity and pulsatile insulin release from pancreatic islets was determined in absence of functional K ATP channels. Membrane potential, [Ca 2+ ] i and 5-HT/insulin release were measured by intracellular recording, fura-2 fluorescence and 5-HT amperometry, respectively. Single mouse islets, bathed in tolbutamide or glibenclamide and high extracellular Ca 2+ (Ca 2+ o ), displayed bursting activity and concomitant fast [Ca 2+ ] i and 5-HT/insulin oscillations. Sulphonylurea block of K ATP channel current was unaffected by raising Ca 2+ o . Raising glucose or α-ketoisocaproic acid (KIC) concentration from 3 to 30 mM increased spiking activity and burst plateau duration. Staurosporine did not impair glucose potentiation of electrical activity, ruling out the involvement of serine/ threonine kinases. Glucose enhanced both [Ca 2+ ] i and 5-HT/insulin oscillatory activity, causing a ~3-fold increase in overall 5-HT release rate. Cells lacking bursting activity in high Ca 2+ o and low glucose (or KIC) developed a pattern of intensified spiking in response to 11 mM glucose. It is concluded that β-cells exhibit graded oscillatory electrical and secretory responses to glucose in absence of functional K ATP channels. This suggests that, under physiological conditions, early glucose sensing may involve other channels besides the K ATP channel. PANCREATIC β-cells secrete insulin in response to glucose and, thus, play a pivotal role in glucose homeostasis. The initial triggering events are relatively well understood. The ATP-sensitive K + (K ATP ) channel, in particular, represents a crucial link between glucose metabolism and Ca 2+ entry. Increasing glucose concentration raises the cytosolic ATP/ADP ratio, closing K ATP channels and evoking the depolarization required to initiate electrical activity [1]. Employing intracellular Ca 2+ clamping techniques, an amplifying pathway (also known as K ATP channel-independent pathway) for Ca 2+ -dependent insulin release has been uncovered [2, 3] whose mediators remain elusive [4,5]. β-Cells undergo cyclic changes in membrane potential, with Ca 2+ -dependent action potentials superimposed on the depolarized plateaus, the duration of which increases as glucose concentration is raised above threshold (~6-7 mM). Bursting electrical activity is matched by prominent fast oscillations of cytosolic free Ca 2+ concentration ([Ca 2+ ] i ) and insulin release (or insulin tracers such as 5-HT), measured at the single islet level [6][7][8]. Bursting electrical activity has also been recorded in vivo [9], suggesting that oscilla-