Insulin First Used to Treat Diabetes on 12th Jan 1922 - 14/06/2010

Did you know that on this day (12th Jan) back in 1922 Insulin was first used to treat Diabetes?

In 1869, spurred by a medical student's observation of cells in the pancreas called "Islets of Langerhans," scientists began working to identify insulin's role in the body and to extract and purify it. Today scientists know that insulin is a hormone that regulates carbohydrate metabolism and that patients with diabetes have a decreased ability to either produce or absorb it.

Question: What happened when a 14-year-old diabetic was given the first insulin injection in 1922?

Answer: On January 11, 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old diabetic who lay dying at the Toronto General Hospital, was given the first injection of insulin. However, the extract was so impure that Thompson suffered a severe allergic reaction, and further injections were canceled. Over the next 12 days, Collip worked day and night to improve the ox-pancreas extract, and a second dose was injected on the 23rd. January. This was completely successful, not only in not having obvious side-effects, but in completely eliminating the glycosuria sign of diabetes.

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