Index
Introduction 1.
History 2.
How is Insulin made 4
The making of insulin with bacteria 5.
What if the body can’t make insulin 6.
Role of the analyst 7.
Conclusion 8.
Sources 9.
Logbook 10.
PowerPoint slides 11.
Introduction
One of the wonder of the world is the human body. The human body is a wonder that scientist have been studying for years. And every day they find something more exciting and extraordinary about it.
This project is about insulin. The reason why we choose to make our English project about insulin is because both of us love to study the human body. We both want to pursue a career in medicine . So by making this project about insulin we are not only learning but we are also enjoying ourselves.
In this project we will talk about the history of insulin. We will also elaborate about the making of insulin and if there are other ways to make insulin outside the body. Furthermore we will also be elaborating about the role of the analyst in the making of insulin.
And finally we will have a conclusion were a summary will be given. In the summary were we will give a brief statement about each and every topic that we presented in the project.
So in the words of the great writer William Shakespeare in the book Othello , 'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus.
Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.
With this great quote from William Shakespeare we are going to start our project.
History
Insulin was discovered by four Canadians scientists in 1921. These four scientists were Frederick G. Banting , Charles H. Best, J.J.R Macleod and James B. Collip. They discovered that insulin , a peptide ( small protein hormone) was . The function of insulin is to lower blood sugar. Their discovery was made by extracting insulin from the islets from animal pancreas . The researchers gave the patent right to the University of Toronto. And they also refused financial gain in order to serve science, research and humankind and to conquer diabetes.
Before they could draw the conclusion that insulin a small protein hormone was many other studies and researches had to be done.
Starting in 1889 with two German researchers , Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering that found out when the pancreas glad form a dog was removed, that the dogs began to develop symptoms of diabetes and soon after they had developed these symptoms the die. So they came to the conclusion that in the pancreas a substance named insulin is produced. With further research the scientist narrowed the search to the islets of Langerhans ( a scientific name for clusters of specialized cells in the pancreas). Sit Edward Albert Sharpey- Shafer suggested in 1910 that only one chemical was missing from the pancreas in people that suffer from diabetes. And he decided to call this missing chemical insulin. Insulin is derived from the Latin word insulina, which means ‘’island’’.
In 1921 the surgeon by the name of Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best found out how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas. The first impression of his fellow colleagues was that what they had removed the appearance of a ‘’think brown muck’’. But this ‘think ‘’brown muck’’ would lead to life and hope for millions of people with diabetes.
January 1922 Leonard Thompson a 14 year old boy that was dying from diabetes in a Toronto hospital, became the first person to receive an insulin injection. And in exactly 24 hours his highly dangerous blood glucose levels dropped to near-normal levels.
By 1923 Banting and Macleod received a Nobel prize in medicine, with they shared with Best and Collip.
In 1936 Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals manufactured a variety-acting insulins.
By the year of 1982 Eli Lily went on to sell the first commercially biosynthetic human insulin under the name of Humulin.
Decades of research, provide the patient with diabetes today with a variety of formulas to choose form to take their insulin. Whether it is by using an insulin pen, or a pump. The research on insulin has come a long way , but sadly it cannot cure diabetes, but
its literally a life saver.
How is insulin made
Insulin is an important hormone that allows the body to use sugar( glucose). Insulin is made in the pancreas. Insulin is one of the primary hormones of the pancreas. The pancreas is 6 inches long and lies deep within the abdomen, between the stomach and the spine. It is connected to the duodenum which is part of the small intestine.
Insulin helps keeps the blood sugar level from getting too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia). The cells in your body need sugar for energy. Sugar cannot go into most of your cells directly.
After you eat food and your blood sugar levels rise, cells in your pancreas are signaled to release insulin into your bloodstream. Insulin then attaches to and signals cells to absorb sugar from the bloodstream. Insulin is often described as a “key,” which unlocks the cell to allow sugar to enter the cell and be used for energy.
If you have more sugar in your body than it needs, insulin helps store the sugar in your liver.
And releases it when your blood sugar level is low or if you need more sugar, such as in between meals or during activity.
As states above the pancreas produce other hormones also such as:
• Gastrin: This hormone aids digestion by stimulating certain cells in the stomach to produce acid.
• Glucagon: Glucagon helps insulin maintain normal blood glucose by working in the opposite way of insulin. It stimulates your cells to release glucose, and this raises your blood glucose levels.
• Insulin: This hormone regulates blood glucose by allowing many of your body’s cells to absorb and use glucose. In turn, this drops blood glucose levels.
• Somatostatin: When levels of other pancreatic hormones, such as insulin and glucagon, get too high, somatostatin is secreted to maintain a balance of glucose and/or salt in the blood.
• Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP): This hormone helps control water secretion and absorption from the intestines by stimulating the intestinal cells to release water and salts into the intestines.
Therefore, insulin helps balance out blood sugar levels and keeps them in a normal range.
As blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas secretes more insulin .
If your body does not produce enough insulin or your cells are resistant to the effects of insulin, you may develop hyperglycemia (high blood sugar).
High blood sugar can cause long-term complications if the blood sugar levels stay elevated for long periods of time.
The making of insulin with bacteria
Insulin is composed by two chains of amino acids. Chain ‘’A’’ and chain ‘’B’’ and they are linked together by a disulfide bond. Chain ‘’A’’ consist of 21 amino acid and chain ‘’B’’ consist of 30 amino acid. Scientist synthesized genes in the laboratory from the A and B chain. After synthesizing the genes they were stitched into a circular DNA strand called the plasmid DNA. This plasmid DNA was inserted in a E.coli bacteria.
Once inside the bacteria, the genes were "switched-on" by the bacteria to translate the code into either the "A" chain or the "B" chain proteins found in insulin. The process is the same as that used by bacteria to produce its own proteins. When the cells produced sufficient amounts of the "A" and "B" chains, they were harvested to isolate these proteins from the bacteria and purify it. The two chains were then combined chemically in the laboratory to form the complete Insulin molecule which is identical to that produced by the human body.
So in steps this is what the scientist did in the lab :
1) Scientists build the human insulin gene in the laboratory.
2) Then they remove a loop of bacterial DNA know as a plasmid and insert the human insulin gene into the plasmid.
3) This new developed plasmid is put return into the bacteria. This is now the “recombinant” bacteria.
4) When is the bacteria put in the fermentation tanks, the bacteria use the gene to begin making human insulin.
5) The insulin can separate from the bacteria, and purify the substance for use as a medicine for people.
What if the body can’t make insulin
Complication in the production or regulation of pancreatic hormones will cause blood sugar imbalance. When blood imbalance occurs, then there is a risk for diabetes type 1 or type2. And also there is a risk for hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia.
As stated above, there are two different types of diabetes:
• Type 1 diabetes : the pancreas cannot produce insulin that the body needs. So in type 1 diabetes, you have insulin deficiency. This type of diabetes is commonly seen in children. It is also considered an autoimmune disease. This means that the immune system destroys the cells in the pancreas which produce insulin .
• Type 2 diabetes: In this type of diabetes the body will produce, insulin but not the amount that the body needs . This type of diabetes is a progressive condition in which the body becomes resistant to the normal effects of insulin. Type 2 diabetes has a strong genetic risk factor. insulin is increasingly ineffective at managing the blood glucose levels. As a result of this insulin resistance, the pancreas responds by producing greater and greater amounts of insulin, to try and achieve some degree of management of the blood glucose levels.
• Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) when the body doesn’t have enough sugar to use as fuel. It can happen for several reasons diet, medications and exercise .
• Hyperglycemia ( high blood pressure) High blood glucose happens when the body has too little insulin or when the body can't use insulin properly .
Role of the analyst
Insulin controls the central of all metabolic processes. So a failure in the production of insulin will lead to a condition called diabetes mellitus. There are two different types of diabetes type1and type2. In order to find out which type of diabetes a patient has analysis have to be done. The analyst will collect the blood and run the test. The first type of test to determine if a patient has diabetes or not is the A1C test. A1C test stands for the major fraction of glycosylated hemoglobin. Hemoglobin to which glucose is bound. Glycosylated hemoglobin is tested to monitor the long-term control of diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this test is to measure the average blood glucose for the past 2 to 3 months. For this test, there is no need for fasting or drink anything. With this particular test you are diagnosed with diabetes when you have an A1C greater than or equal to 6.5%. In figure 8 there is a table explaining the results.
Result A1c
Normal Less than 5.7%
Prediabetes 5.7% to 6.4%
Diabetes 6.5% or higher
Figure 8: Table result of the Ac 1 in percent of blood glucose.
The second type of test to determine of if a patient has diabetes is known as the FPG. FPG stands for Fasting Plasma Glucose. The purpose of this test is to check your fasting blood glucose levels. In order to take this test the patient cannot have anything to eat or drink ( except water). The analyst will determine if the patient has diabetes by analyzing the patient blood. If the Fasting Plasma Glucose is 126 mg/dl or higher this patient will be diagnosed with diabetes. In the table below there are the results according to the Fasting Plasma Glucose.
Result Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG)
Normal Less than 100 mg/dl
Prediabetes 100 mg/dl to 125 mg/dl
Diabetes 126 mg/dl or higher
Figure 9: Table of result of the FPG in Mg/dl.
The third way to diagnose diabetes is by using the Oral Glucose Tolerance test. This test is also known as OGTT. This test checks the blood glucose level before and after 2 hours after you drink a special sweet drink which has 75 grams of glucose. The result will show how the body processes glucose. Diabetes is diagnosed when, after the 2 hours blood glucose is greater or equal to 200 mg/dl. In the table below the result , according to the Fasting Plasma Glucose.
Result Fasting Plasma Glucose (FPG)
Normal Less than 140 mg/dl
Prediabetes 140 mg/dl to 199 mg/dl
Diabetes 200 mg/dl or higher
Figure 10 : Table of result of OGTT in mg/dl
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have seen that insulin was discovered by four Canadians scientists in 1921. And that insulin is an important hormone that allows the body to use sugar( glucose). And also that insulin is made in the pancreas.
That insulin helps to keep the blood sugar level from getting too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia). After you eat food and your blood sugar levels rises, cells in your pancreas are signaled to release insulin into your bloodstream Insulin is composed by two chains of amino acids. Chain ‘’A’’ and chain ‘’B’’ and they are linked together by a disulfide bond. Chain ‘’A’’ consist of 21 amino acid and chain ‘’B’’ consist of 30 amino acid. That insulin can be made in the ;laboratory using bacteria.
And if the body cannot produce insulin it may cause type 1 or 2 diabetes. Or Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or even Hyperglycemia ( high blood pressure).
We also saw the role of the analyst in completing different test in order to determine if a patient has diabetes. The Ac 1 in percent of blood glucose , FPG in Mg/dl and last but not least the OGTT in mg/dl.
With this project we wanted to show how important the making of insulin is for the human body. Our main purpose with this project was to make clear how insulin is made or can be made in the human body and in a laboratory.
We hope that we have enlarged your knowledge about the making of insulin.
Like everything in life there is a start and an end and with this being said , we have come to the end of our English project how is insulin made. It was a pleasure and let’s say till the next time .
So we wanted to finish our project the same way we started it with a quote.
‘’Let your food be your medicine , and let your medicine be your food’’
-Hippocrates
Source
Website: http://diabetesstopshere.org/2012/08/21/the-history-of-a-wonderful-thing-we-call-insulin/
Website : http://www.endocrineweb.com/conditions/type-1-diabetes/what-insulin
Website: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/fromdnatobeer/exhibition-interactive/recombinant-DNA/recombinant-dna-technology-alternative.html
Website: http://www.gene.com/media/press-releases/4160/1978-09-06/first-successful-laboratory-production-o
Website: http://www.hormone.org/hormones-and-health/what-do-hormones-do/insulin
Website: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/Diabetes/causes-diabetes/Documents/Causes_of_Diabetes_508.pdf
Website:http://www.diabetes.org/diabetesbasics/diagnosis/?referrer=https://www.google.nl/