diabetes

• What did Frederick Banting and Charles Best do to treat diabetes in the 1920s?

  They made some dogs diabetic by removing their pancreases. Then they gave them extracts of pancreas taken from other dogs. They discovered this could keep people with diabetes alive.
• Until the 1980s, what was used to treat diabetes?

  insulin from pigs and cows
• What were the problems with the way diabetes was treated until the 1980s?

  - Animal insulin not identical to human insulin

  - Supply depended on how many animals were killed

  - Not always enough to go around
• What has been developed in recent years to treat type 1 diabetes and what must be considered?

  Genetic engineeringhas been used to developbacteriathat can produce pure human insulin. The ethics of interfering with genetic material must be considered.
• What are the 2 possible cures for type 1 diabetes and why are they not widely available?

  -Pancreas transplant

  The operations are risky and difficult, only a few hundred are carried out each year in the UK. There are not enough donors and the patient exchanges insulin for immunosuppressants

  -Pancreatic cell transplant

  Attempts have been made to transplant pancreatic cells which make insulin from dead and living donors with very limited success
• Discuss the successes scientists have had with research into curing type 1 diabetes

  -Stem cell research

  In 2005, scientists produced insulin-secreting cells fromembryonic stem cellsand cured diabetes in mice

  -Genetic engineering

  In 2008, UK scientists turned mouse pancreas cells which normally make enzymes into insulin-producing cells
• What would an ideal cure for type 1 diabetes be if there were no ethical considerations?

  use stem cells from human embryos to develop fully functional pancreatic cells and transplant them to the patient with no rejection issues
• What often causes


  type 2 diabetes?obesity, lack of exercise or both
• How is the body affected by type 2 diabetes?

  - Pancreas may make less insulin

  - Cells stop responding to insulin properly
• How is type 2 diabetes managed naturally?

  - Balanced diet (carefully controlled carbohydrates)

  - Lose weight

  - Regular exercise
• How is type 2 diabetes managed if natural remedies do not work?

  drugs

  
  

  There are drugs which help insulin work better on the body cells, help the pancreas make more insulin and reduce the amount of glucose absorbed from the gut.
• Who does type 2 diabetes usually affect?

  older people (becoming more common in younger people)