Where Insulin Comes From

[science_spot]

November 14th is World Diabetes Day.  Many organizations use this day to educate the public on Diabetes awareness, the importance of healthy eating and risk of children and adults becoming diabetic.  I would like to use today to generate awareness of where therapeutic insulin comes from and how it is made.

Many years ago, insulin for patient injections was harvested and purified from human cadavers immediately after death.  This could then be stored for a short time before being used by the patient to control the blood sugar.  There were major concerns with this practice, including possible viral contamination, storage of unstable insulin and yield per cadaver.  The problem with yield was satisfied by moving from human cadavers to animal carcasses.  The animal carcass (specifically the pancreas) is available in huge numbers from slaughterhouses that specialize in pigs and cows.  Pig and cow insulin was known to work in the human body the same as human insulin, since these proteins are very similar in structure, sequence and function.  But there was still a concern with viral contamiination as well as insulin stability.

 

 

In 1978 Eli Lilly & Company produced the first human recombinant insulin by using Recombinant DNA Technology.  This technology produced a GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) that makes huge quantities of insulin that can be purified directly from the culture medium of the organism.  Check out my past post about GMOs if you would like to understand this process in detail.  In 1982, the FDA approved the use of this recombinant human insulin for use as a therapeutic agent in humans. At that time, the insulin was manufactured exclusively by Eli Lilly & Co. under the name Humulin (picture above from patentdocs.com).  The sequence, structure and function is identical to natural human insulin. 

This recombinant human insulin has fewer safety concerns because it is not purified directly from an animal.  The concerns of viral contamination are greatly reduced, and continue to reduce further as the push continues to make a completely animal origin free product. 

In many ways, the production of this product paved the way for other GMOs to enter our marketplace as well as providing methods and valuable research into the field of biotechnology.  Whether you believe GMOs and biotechnology are good or bad, hundreds of thousands of people (diabetics) benefit from the recombinant human insulin they take to survive everyday. 

 

Tonya

AKA sunmoonstars

The Science Spot

 

[Momforhealth]

Nov. 13, 2009 at 8:42 PM

Wow cool.  Thank you for educating me.

[Crystal750]

Nov. 14, 2009 at 6:14 PM

Very interesting!

[comfycouch]

Nov. 14, 2009 at 11:27 PM

Thank you Tonya, very informative.