Insulin Is Named After Islands in the Pancreas
Insulin is the hormone that lets cells take up sugar from the blood. Its name comes from the islet cells that make it.
Insulin is the hormone that allows cells to absorb glucose from the blood. Its name is a piece of anatomy: it is made in the islets of Langerhans, small clusters of cells scattered through the pancreas, and *insula* is Latin for island. Its isolation in 1921 turned type 1 diabetes from a fatal disease into a manageable one.
- A hormone regulating blood sugar. *Insulin is made in the pancreas.*
- The medicine made from it. *She injects insulin twice a day.*
- Insulin resistance — reduced response to the hormone. *Insulin resistance precedes type 2 diabetes.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | insulin | Long-acting insulin. |
| Adjective | insulin-dependent | Insulin-dependent diabetes. |
| Related | glucose | Blood glucose. |
| Related | glucagon | Glucagon raises blood sugar. |
| Related | pancreas | The pancreas. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Insulin lowers blood sugar after a meal.Its central job.
- He carries insulin and a glucose meter.Everyday management.
- Insulin was first used in a patient in 1922.A fourteen-year-old boy in Toronto.
Terms that go with it
- Type 1 diabetes — the body makes little or no insulin
- Type 2 diabetes — the body responds poorly to it
- Hypoglycaemia — blood sugar too low
- Hyperglycaemia — blood sugar too high
- Islets of Langerhans — the cell clusters that produce it
Coined about 1910 from Latin *insula*, island, for the hormone believed to come from the pancreatic islets, before anyone had managed to isolate it.
Who discovered insulin?
Frederick Banting and Charles Best, working in J. J. R. Macleod's laboratory in Toronto in 1921, with James Collip purifying the extract.
Why is it injected rather than swallowed?
Because it is a protein and would be digested in the stomach before reaching the blood.