par Dorchy, Harry 
Référence Revue médicale de Bruxelles, 43, 1, page (74-80)
Publication Publié, 2022-01
Référence Revue médicale de Bruxelles, 43, 1, page (74-80)
Publication Publié, 2022-01
Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | In 2021-2022, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin which in 1923 was awarded with a Nobel Prize to F.G. Banting (surgeon) and J.J.R. Macleod (physiologist, head of the laboratory at the University of Toronto, Canada). Then, this prize was shared with C.H. Best (student) and J.B. Collip (biochemist). They showed that a pancreas extract injected into a pancreatectomized dog, so diabetic, lowers his blood sugar and keep him alive. Their first article was published in February 1922 in The Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine (St Louis), 8 months after the Archives Internationales de Physiologie (Paris, Liège) received an article from the Romanian N. Paulescu on June 21, 1921, already proving that a pancreatic extract injected into a diabetic dog, reduced blood sugar, acetonemia and urea. He thought he should have been associated with the Nobel Prize, because his experimental results were comparable but earlier than those of the group of Toronto. The problem was that the Romanian and Canadian pancreatic extracts were not pure enough to be injected into a human. Thanks to Collip who was able to separate the insulin from the proteins with a 95% alcohol solution, the purified extract was successfully injected into a dying diabetic child on January 23, 1922. In 2002, there was an attempt to rehabilitate Paulescu's work, but this was postponed due to his anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi views. Since the discovery of insulin a century ago, major progress has been made concerning the action of insulins and their production. |
