INSULIN

What is insulin?

Insulin is the internal secretion of the pancreas formed by groups of cells called
the islets of Langerhans. It is the hormone needed to enable glucose to enter the
cells and provide energy. Insulin is also important in keeping blood glucose
levels within the acceptable limits.
Insulin is injected into the body by people with type 1 diabetes in whom the
cells that produce insulin have been destroyed. This is the most common form of
diabetes in children and young adults, and they depend on insulin for survival.
Insulin may also be used by people with type 2 diabetes, where the body needs
more insulin than it can produce.
How is insulin prepared?
Since the landmark discovery of insulin by Frederick Banting and Charles Best
in 1922, huge steps have been made in research and development regarding its
preparation. Early preparations of insulin were purified quite crudely from
pancreas tissue extracted from animals - either pigs or cattle. Today, insulin is
mostly made biosynthetically by recombinant DNA technology or 'genetic
engineering'.
Animal insulin
Until the 1980s, all insulin was extracted from the pancreases of cattle and pigs.
The sequence of amino acids (the building blocks that make up the protein) is
slightly different in insulins from the different species. Compared to human
insulin, porcine (pork) insulin has one different amino acid and bovine (beef)
insulin three different amino acids. These very slight differences do not affect
the way in which the insulin works inside the human body. Pork insulin is
structurally closer to human insulin than is beef insulin. These days, animal
insulins are made from highly purified pancreas extracts and are marketed as
'natural' insulins.
Human insulin
Human insulin is not prepared from human pancreas tissue. Rather than being
extracted from human pancreases, commercially available human insulin is
manufactured through recombinant DNA technology, in which the gene for
making human insulin is transferred into simple cells such as bacteria or bakers
yeast. The insulin made by those cells is identical to insulin made by the human
pancreas. Unlike animal insulins, recombinant DNA human insulins can be
made in unlimited supply, since they do not depend on the supply of bovine and
porcine pancreases.
ION ELENA-GICA