Banting and Best

Extract from their Nobel Prize Winning paper, 1922Taken from:

http://www.biology.buffalo.edu/courses/bio130/medler/banting.pdf

• Later, Macleod assigned chemist James Bertram Collip to the group to help with the purification. Within six weeks, he felt confident enough of the insulin he had isolated to try it on a human for the first time: a 14-year-old boy dying of diabetes. The injection indeed lowered his blood sugar and cleared his urine of sugars and other signs of the disease.

Now read about their methods

Do the means justify the end?

Now debate the following:

• Are these experiments and the conclusions they drew valid and reliable? Why?

• Do the means justify the end?

• Following the success of these trials, cow and pig produced insulin was used to treat human diabetics. The insulin was extracted from the animals, purified and then injected into patients.

• What are the potential problems of using cow insulin to treat diabetes?

• What can we do instead that overcomes these problems?

• Q1. Which hormone is responsible for increasing cellular uptake of glucose and therefore a reduction in blood glucose concentration?

• Q2. Which organ produces this hormone?• Q3. Why is this hormone injected into patients

instead of being taken orally? (2)• Q4. How else, aside from hormone injections, may

a diabetic patient manage their condition?• Q5. What would happen to the blood sugar of a

diabetic who failed to take insulin?• Q6. Why is glucose not found in the urine of a

healthy person?

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-effect-of-high-sugar-intake-on-blood-sugar-levels/5371.html

• Q1. Which hormone is responsible for increasing cellular uptake of glucose and therefore a reduction in blood glucose concentration?

• Q2. Which organ produces this hormone?• Q3. Why is this hormone injected into patients

instead of being taken orally? (2)• Q4. How else, aside from hormone injections, may

a diabetic patient manage their condition?• Q5. What would happen to the blood sugar of a

diabetic who failed to take insulin?• Q6. Why is glucose not found in the urine of a

healthy person?

• In future, pancreatic transplants may be possible – a working pancreas can be transplanted into the diabetic patient.

• Q7. What are the possible pros and cons of this treatment. (2 marks for pros 2 marks for cons)

• What sort of diabetic patients would not benefit from an organ transplant?

Use the flowchart to help answer the questions

What are hormones?

How do hormones reach their target cells?

Name the two hormones involved in control of blood sugar.

How does insulin cause a change in blood sugar?

What is the normal level of blood glucose?

Why is it important to control our blood sugar levels?