Insulin Tyson Williams

Source of Insulin Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone secreted by the pancreas. Though there is synthetic insulin created by ‘cloning’ insulin using recombinant DNA technology.

Discovery of Insulin In 1869 a medical student in Berlin, Paul Langerhans was studying the structure of the pancreas under a microscope when he found something that went previously unnoticed. Tissue clumps could be found throughout the pancreas. In 1889 Oscar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering worked together to extract the pancreas from a healthy dog for study. They later found flies drinking the dog’s urine, upon testing the urine, they found excess amounts of sugar in it Nicolas Paulescu developed an aqueous pancreatic extract which, when injected into a diabetic dog, had a normalizing effect on the blood sugar levels of the dog.

Risks and Benefits Insulin does not pose many risks aside from the actual use of the insulin needle, the needle itself is more of a risk than the drug. The needle causes bruising and slight bleeding but insulin itself poses no real threat. Insulin regulates blood sugar in the body and can help fight against heart disease, strokes, heart attacks, nerve problems, feet problems, kidney disease and amputations. The actual production of insulin creates a by product Called C-Peptide which can help with pancreatic transplants.

Use of Insulin Insulin is used to treat several forms of Diabetus Mellitus, a condition which affects the pancreas’ secretion of natural hormones. This is done in the form of insulin pens. Originally insulin for medical use was found inside of pigs or cows since they were close to humans, but now we use something called Recombinant DNA that is commonly known as Chimera DNA and the process itself can be referred to as ‘Molecular Cloning’. We have started cloning insulin cells to better treat diabetes.

Alternatives There is an organization based in India that is working on an orally taken form of insulin to lessen the risks of needle bruising and bleeding.

Sources Diabetes.org Betacell.org Wikipedia.org Healthline.com Nvonordisk.com m.circ.ahdjournals.com