Human insulin--medical progress?

Abstract

Human insulin is now produced in commercial scale by semisynthesis from porcine insulin or by recombinant DNA techniques. Comparative studies in non-diabetic or diabetic subjects on the hypoglycaemic effect of human insulin after intravenous or subcutaneous administration do not indicate that human insulin has advantage over highly purified pork insulin. In two of the three studies in which plasma insulin levels were examined after subcutaneous injection the results suggest that absorption of biosynthetic human insulin may be more rapid than that of purified porcine insulin. The amount of insulin needed to maintain normoglycemia in subjects with insulin-dependent diabetes, studied with a glucose controlled insulin infusion system was generally the same with human and pork insulin. Studies concerning subcutaneous absorption of NPH insulin in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes are needed. Long-term studies on the tendency of human insulin to induce antibody production are still lacking. Scientifically, the production of human insulin by recombinant DNA methods is a great advance. It remains, however, to be shown that human insulin has any clinical advantages over porcine insulin.