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How was insulin obtained before the advent of rDNA technology ?

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Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood and is required for the body to function normally. People who do not produce the
necessary amount of insulin have diabetes. There are two general types of diabetes. The most severe type, known as Type I or juvenile-onset diabetes, is when the body does not produce any insulin. Type I diabetics usually inject themselves with different types of insulin three to four times daily. Dosage is taken based on the person’s blood glucose reading, taken from a glucose meter. Type II diabetics produce some insulin, but it is either not enough or their cells do not respond normally to insulin. 

History : Before researchers discovered how to produce insulin, people who suffered from Type I diabetes had no chance for a healthy life. Then in 1921, Canadian scientists Frederick G Banting and Charles H. Best successfully purified insulin from a dog’s pancreas. Over the years scientists made continual improvements in producing insulin. In 1936. researchers found a way to make insulin with a slower release in the blood. They added a protein found in fish sperm, protamine, which the body breaks down slowly. One injection lasted 36 hours. Another breakthrough came in 1950 when researchers produced a type of insulin that acted slightly faster and does not remain in the bloodstream as long. In the 1970’s, researchers began to try and produce an insulin that more mimicked how the body’s natural insulin worked: releasing a small amount of insulin all day with surges occurring at mealtimes. 

Researchers continued to improve insulin but the basic production method remained the same for decades. Insulin was extracted from the pancreas of cattle and pigs and purified. The chemical structure of insulin in these animals is only slightly different than human insulin, which is why it functions so well in the human body. (Although some people had negative immune system or allergic reactions.) Then in the early 1980’s biotechnology revolutionized insulin synthesis. Researchers had already decoded the chemical structure of insulin in the midi 1950’s. They soon determined the exact location of the insulin gene at the top of chromosome 11. By 1977, a research team had spliced a rat insulin gene into a bacterium that then produced insulin.

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