Answer
The answer for this question is that all the following benefits accrue from producing insulin by biotechnology:
a. The synthetic insulin is just as effective as cow or pig insulin
b/d. Insulin can be mass produced by biotechnology; this reduces the cost of production and
consequently the cost to the patients whose lives depend on it; in addition, larger amounts become
available so pharmacies and clinics and hospitals are less likely to run out.
c. Some diabetic patients have allergic reactions to insulin derived from pig or cow pancreas.
Synthetic insulin is not allergenic in the way that animal-derived insulin is ; however, a few patients
do have adverse side reactions to synthetic insulin.
Work Step by Step
Insulin is a hormone produced by the beta cells of the Islets of Langerhans of the pancreas. The main function of this hormone is to move glucose from blood into cells. There the glucose serves to fuel the formation of the energy storage molecule ATP which is necessary for many cellular process.
Diabetes mellitus results from a failure of the organism to produce insulin or to produce enough of it for the body's needs. The dire consequences of untreated diabetes are nerve damage, blindness, kidney failure , cardiovascular disease --death. The diabetes patient must therefore have available a reliable supply of insulin which they may need to inject several times per day.
Before the 1980's, insulin for diabetic therapy was extracted from the pancreases of cows and pigs. This product was effective, but had certain disadvantages : production was costly and time consuming; it involved what some saw as the unethical treatment of animals; supplies often ran out and some patients had allergic reactions to the animal insulin. The last adverse effect was due to the fact that the pig and cow insulins were not exact chemical analogs of the human hormone.
Since the 1980's insulin has been produced synthetically. This insulin which is also called genetically modified insulin (GMO) or human insulin is produced by a recombinant DNA technology:
First the DNA sequence/gene that codes for the human insulin is isolated and inserted into bacteria (E.coli) or yeast cells. The human insulin gene directs the bacteria or yeast to produce human insulin in culture.
Synthetic /GMO/ insulin is indistinguishable biochemically from natural human insulin. Other advantages are that very large quantities can be produced in culture. at the same time; it is absorbed more rapidly when injected, and is effective within a shorter time after injection than animal insulin; furthermore, GMO technology avoids the unethical slaughter of large numbers of animals for human benefit.
It is true that a few diabetics develop episodes of hypoglycemia while on synthetic insulin, but, generally, there are much fewer allergic reactions to this product
