胰岛素研究的新突破

人类与糖尿病抗争的历史最早可上溯到公元前1500年前,但直到20世纪20年代胰岛素才由生理学家FredrickBanting等发现。自此,挽救了数以百万计的糖尿病患者的生命。随后,人们在研究胰岛素如何调节物质代谢时,意外发现含胰岛素的激化液(Glucose-insulin-potassium,GIK)可改善急性心脏梗死患者的症状。提示,胰岛素还具有其它多方面的生理功能。近期研究证明,胰岛素确有抗心肌坏死与凋亡、进而保护缺血再灌注心肌的作用,这再次引起了人们对胰岛素进行深入研究的兴趣。从胰岛素的发现到对其新的作用机制的认识给我们带来许多有益的启示。

Breakthrough of Recognition on Insulin Studies

From as early as 1500BC,Egyptian writings had described a wasting disease, Diabetes mellitus,but its therapy remained unanswered until early last century when Fredrick Banting and his partner, Charles Best, discovered insulin in 1921. Since then, insulin saved countless lives. When scientists spent lots of efforts on investigating how insulin regulates material metabolism, they accidentally found a new phenomenon that Glucose-insulin-potassium(GIK) cocktail could improve the cardiac function in AMI, which showed that insulin might involve in other physiological process. Recently, many studies showed that insulin can protect against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury through anti-necrosis and anti-apoptosis. There has been a resurgence of interest in GIK as a treatment for patients with AMI who are undergoing reperfusion, and also brings much enlightenment to us.