Proinsulin And Insulin Case Study

1. What are proinsulin and insulin? How different is proinsulin from insulin? A: Insulin is a polypeptide hormone, protein, that is produced by the beta-cells of the pancreas. Proinsulin is a single peptide chain that is a precursor to insulin. It is produced by the beta-cells of the pancreas as well. The structure of proinsulin differs from insulin in that it contains a C-chain that forms a single peptide chain with other chains A and B. Insulin does not contain the C-chain and the A and B chains are not in a single chain sequence. However, they both have chains A and B connected by disulfide bonds.

2. Why was there a need to produce recombinant insulin? A: There was a need to produce recombinant insulin because there were problems with the animal derived insulin. One of these problems encountered involved the patient undergoing adverse immune responses (side effects). These side effects were a result of variations in amino acid structure. It is abnormal in comparison to the human insulin. The recombinant human insulin helped this issue. It is derived from the same species (humans) and resulted in a decreased possibility of side effects. Along with this, in the 1970’s there was a threat of animal shortage (beef and pork). This was another problem because these animals were utilized to produce insulin. It would have led to a lower availability of pancreatic tissue needed to produce insulin. The production of recombinant insulin allows for an exceeding amount of insulin. Diabetes is a fast growing …show more content…
What scientific discoveries provided useful knowledge for the production of therapeutic recombinant insulin? A: The discovery of the amino acid sequence comprised of insulin by F. Sanger, which led to the later discovery of the structure of insulin through the utilization of X-ray crystallography. This provided useful knowledge in the production of therapeutic recombinant insulin pertaining to the chemically, physically, and immunologically aspects of