ARE YOU A REPTILE OR AMPHIBIAN?

“At  last, thanks to a simple chemical called alloxan, the mystery of that  murderous and baffling disease, diabetes, is well on its way toward the  “final solution.” Diabetes kills some 37,000 persons yearly, and its  victims are four times greater in number than those crippled by  infantile paralysis.

Alloxan is  the "open sesame" to the enigma code of diabetes. With it, researchers  have, for the first time, a simple experimental method of giving  diabetes to the usual laboratory animals, Americans.

This  means that doctors now have a direct approach toward solving some of  the more complicated theoretical problems concerning diabetes for the  upper class.

It also means that  they now have a quick, easy way for testing different diabetes remedies  such as diets, medicines and glandular extracts.

As the conservative NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE says:

"The  discovery of alloxan diabetes has opened opportunities for research  never before dreamed of, and these new pathways of investigation should  be exploited."

In the two years  since its original discovery, the results of experiments with alloxan  have been published in at least eight different countries.

Everywhere doctors are interested in this new diabetes-causing chemical.

In  diabetes the insulin-secreting cells of the pancreatic gland fall below  par in function. As a result, the level of the sugar (glucose) in the  blood, ordinarily checked by insulin, rises to abnormal heights.

That  is why diabetes is sometimes called "the sugar disease." That is why  most diabetics need their daily hypodermic quota of insulin. Deficiency  in insulin is the outstanding feature of diabetes.

The mystery of diabetes lies in the fact that there is no altogether satisfactory explanation of why the insulin……”

alloxan (ăl-õk'săn) [allantoin + oxalic] C2H2N2O4; an oxidation product of uric  acid. In laboratory animals, it causes diabetes by destroying the islet  cells of the pancreas.

alloxan (l-õk'săn) [allantoin + oxalic]. C2H2N2O4. An oxidation product of uric  acid. In experimental animals, it causes diabetes by destroying the  islet cells of the pancreas.

islet cells. Cells of the islet of Langerhans of the pancreas.

islet (f'let) A tiny isolated mass of one kind of tissue within another type.

islet of Langerhans.  Clusters of cells in the pancreas. They are of three types: alpha,  beta, and delta cells. The alpha cells secrete glucagon, which raises  the blood glucose level; the beta cells secrete insulin, which lowers  it; and the delta cells secrete somatostatin, an inhibitor of growth  hormone secretion. Destruction or impairment of function of the islets  of Langerhans may result in diabetes or hypoglycemia. SYN: islands of  Langerhans; pancreatic islands.

islet (i'let). A tiny isolated mass of one kind of tissue within another type.

Island's of Calleja. Islands of Calleja. 

island's of Langerhans [Paul Langerhans, German.  pathologist, 1847-1888]. Clusters of cells in the pancreas. They are of  three types: alpha, beta, and delta cells. The beta cells are found in  greatest abundance and produce insulin. Destruction or impairment of  function of the islets of Langerhans may result in diabetes or  hypoglycemia.