Insulin is mass-produced as a treatment for the 371 million people with diabetes. First discovered in 1921, insulin has been produced or isolated through many different methods. In this experiment, insulin was extracted from the pancreata of farm animals including cows, sheep, and pigs by an acid-alcohol method. The pancreas of each animal was dissected free of fat and connective tissues and homogenized with a solution of ethanol and water which was acidified with orthophosphoric acid. Centrifugation, filtration, and the stepwise addition of the acidified water alcohol solution and an ammonium acetate buffer comprised the extraction steps. The extracted insulin was further purified through the use of ion exchange chromatography with Sephadex as the solid medium. The purity of the extracted insulin was characterized by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and with a SDS-PAGE gel. The yield of purified insulin was close to 20%, but varied depending on the species of the animal. Future studies look to test the purified insulin for effectiveness on diabetic mice with a removed pancreas and performing blood sugar reading studies. These hypoglycemic studies would display the effectiveness of the extracted and purified insulin.

Studying the methods of extraction and purification of insulin for diabetic treatment

2019 Spring National Meeting

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