Biology Question On Insulin ?

Question

What is the significance of the name " insulin " which means "island" ?

Why is it called island what is the significance ? How do Island have any thing to do with insulin ?

Answer 1

Insulin (from Latin insula, "island", as it is produced in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas) is a polypeptide hormone that regulates carbohydrate metabolism. Apart from being the primary effector in carbohydrate homeostasis, it has effects on fat metabolism and it can change the liver's ability to release fat stores. Insulin's concentration has extremely widespread effects throughout the body.

It comes from Latin word insula, meaning "island", because Insulin is produced in the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas

Answer 2

The ending "-in" is often historically appended to the names of protein complexes found in nature. The job of the isolated protein is not always known when it is first discovered. In many cases, biological proteins have been discovered by the chemical analysis of tissue preparations made from specific parts of organs. If so, the naming convention has often included the name of the tissue of origin, along with the protein "-in" ending. Examples include things like "renin" isolated from kidney, "pepsin" isolated from stomach, "plasmin" from blood plasma, and of course "insulin", isolated from tiny beads of cells within the pancreas termed "islets of Langerhans."

The pancreas is an organ with dual characteristics. Most of the organ is a series of tiny glands that make digestive juice and secrete it into ducts that collect together and empty into the intestine. However, intermixed with these glands are small collections of tissue which do not empty into ducts. These are identifiable because they have a tiny artery branch coming into them, and a tiny vein leaving them, and they are otherwise hypervascular compared to the surrounding tissue. These are termed "islets of Langerhans" discovered by Paul Langerhans in the late 1860's.

These islets are hormone secreting glands whose products are emptied into the blood stream instead of into a duct that leads to the intestine. Although difficult to do, these islets can be isolated and their chemical content can be analyzed.

I hope that addressed your question appropriately.