Insulin Production 1922 – Helping People with Diabetes Survive

Endocrine surgery pioneer and historian Richard Welbourn wrote that the commercial production of insulin in 1922 was "the greatest advance in medical treatment since the introduction of antisepsis 50 years earlier" .

Insulin is a hormone that controls the ability of our body's cells to take up glucose from the bloodstream. Glucose is a simple sugar used by cells as an energy source. The hormone is produced in regions of the pancreas called the islets of Langerhans. 

Diabetes occurs in the absence of insulin production: 

• People with type 1 diabetes generally need insulin, usually in the form of injections. 
• People with type 2 diabetes have insulin resistance, in which natural insulin becomes less effective at lowering blood sugar. Type 2 diabetes can generally be controlled with diet, exercise, and other medicines.

In 1921, Canadian physician Frederick Banting and research assistant Charles Best isolated an extract from the pancreatic islets of a healthy dog and injected it into a dying dog whose pancreas they had removed. Banting wrote that he would never forget seeing the dog, which had previously struggled to walk, run normally after the extract was injected. Because the extract contained insulin, the dog could control its blood glucose levels. In 1922, Banting and Best saved the life of a 14-year-old boy dying of diabetes by injecting a purified insulin extract. The boy, who had been unable to get out of his hospital bed, left the hospital just a few weeks later.

Banting and Best offered the patent free of charge. 

• In 1922, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly began producing and selling insulin in large quantities. 
• In 1977, insulin was produced for the first time through genetic engineering, using bacteria into which the appropriate genes had been inserted.

Description of the Article Image: Canadian physician Frederick Banting and research assistant Charles Best

Historical Figures Mentioned in This Article: Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891–1941), Charles Herbert Best (1899–1978)

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