Background: Historical description of first insulin trials just after its discovery. Areas of Uncertainty: The review includes first initiatives of insulin treatment. The probability of other trials, not reported to the Insulin Committee of the University of Toronto and conducted in the years 1922 and 1923, is quite low. Data Sources: (1) Archival Collections, University of Toronto: Insulin Discovery and Early Developments of Insulin (University of Toronto Libraries digital special collection, with a particular section entitled “From a Patient's Point of View” containing letters, patient charts, newspaper clippings, and photographs). (2) Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library: Academy of Medicine Collection, F. G. Banting Papers, C. H. Best Papers, J. B.Collip Papers, W. R. Feasby Papers, E. Hugues Papers, J. J. R. Macleod Papers. (3) National Library of Medicine: PubMed search for the topic of history of insulin, History of Medicine-on syllabus archive. (4) Selected Journals for History of Medicine: Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Medical History. (5) Selected books: The Discovery of Insulin (M. Bliss); Diabetes, Its Medical and Cultural History (D. von Engelhardt); H. C. Hagedorn and Danish Insulin (T.Deckert), Continuing Quest (W. A. Tomkins). Therapeutic Advances: This historical review shows the quick progress from impure pancreatic extract to the selective isoelectric precipitation of the hormone, which made possible the introduction of insulin in the clinic. Conclusions: The coordination between the Departments of Physiology (Connaught Laboratories) and Medicine (Toronto General Hospital) was essential for the discovery and implementation of insulin therapy. The Insulin Committee was decisive for the negotiation with the pharmaceutical industry, the purification, grand-scale production, patents' achievement, and provision of licenses to expert clinicians and prestigious health centers. At the end of the year 1923, insulin treatment was already extended to Europe (mainly Scandinavia, Great Britain, and Spain). Insulin discovery and treatment changed the clinical spectrum of diabetes.
Background: Historical review on the early development of organotherapy for diabetes [pancreatic extracts (PE)] and its relationship with the social and political circumstances. Areas of Uncertainty: The diagnosis of diabetes relied only in the presence of glycosuria and cardinal symptoms. Blood glucose determinations were not regularly available, requiring large volumes for sampling. Micromethods for glycemia were developed just in the last years of the investigated period. Hypoglycemia remains undiscovered. Isolation and purification of PE were difficult tasks due to the unknown chemical structure of the antidiabetic hormone. Data Sources: (1) Berliner Medizinhistoriches Museum der Charité (Humboldt University). (2) GeDenKort Charité-Wissenschaft in Verantwortung. (3) Geheim Staatsarchiv Preuβischer Kulturbesitz. (4) Archival Collections, University of Toronto: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Academy of Medicine Collection, F. G. Banting Papers, C. H. Best Papers, J. J. R. Macleod Papers. (5) National Library of Medicine: Pubmed search for the topic of history of insulin. History of Medicine-on syllabus archive. (6) Selected books: The Discovery of Insulin (M. Bliss); Diabetes, Its Medical and Cultural History (D. von Engelhardt); Brown-Séquard (M. J. Aminoff); Diabetes: The Biography (R. Tattersall); The Endocrine Organs (E. Schäfer); The Internal Secretions (E. Gley); Health, race and German politics between national unification and Nazism, 1870–1945 (P. Weindling). Therapeutic Advances: Demonstration that diabetes is a pancreatic disease. The outstanding progress of medical physiology led to the birth of endocrinology and the key concepts of homeostasis. Experimental scientists designed new procedures for complete pancreatectomy and elaboration of PE containing the antidiabetic principle. Organotherapy achieved complete success in the treatment of myxedema and partial success in the treatment of experimental and clinical diabetes. Conclusions: The organotherapy of diabetes was an obliged step to facilitate the identification of the antidiabetic hormone. Organotherapy of diabetes was a paradigm for the integration of basic and applied knowledge about hormone action and development of endocrine pharmacology.
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