Insulin is used to control blood sugar for diabetes patients. Insulin is an anabolic hormone that promotes glucose uptake, glycogenesis, lipogenesis and protein synthesis. On studing the literature, the non-diabetic uses of insulin include wound healing, parenteral nutrition, anti aging body building, cardioprotection in acute coronary syndromes. People with diabetes type 2 may require insulin when their meal plan, weight loss, exercise and antidiabetic drugs do not achieve targeted blood glucose levels.
All of you know that, it is very important to ensure insulin is kept at the appropriate temperatures to ensure its effective use. Temperatures is main fact that affected on the Insulin. As a general rule, Insulin should be refrigerated. However, insulin can be kept at room temperature, meaning not in the refrigerator for an approximate of 25-30 days. Up to maximum of one month, insulin should be refrigerated at a temperature between 36 to 46° F.
Insulin you are not using should be kept between 36- 46°F. If it gets colder than it can freeze. If it gets warmer than that, it will be good for a while, but eventually it will start to break down. All insulins are sensitive to temperatures that are too high or too low. Once you receive your insulin prescription, you should store all the supplies you've received in the refrigerator.
A team of scientists have developed a "thermostable" variety of insulin, which eliminates the need to keep it refrigerated. The research has been led by two scientists of the Bose Institute and the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and two others from the Indian Institute of chemical Technology, Hyderabad.
Subhrangsu Chatterjee which are the faculty member at Bose Institute said that - " You will be able to keep it outside the refrigerator for as long as you want, something that will help diabetes patients across the world because carrying insulin along with them was considered impossible all this while. Chatterjee and Partha Chakrabarti, a faculty member at IICB, along with It's B. Jagadeesh and J. Reddy, were able to introduce a matrix of four amino acid peptide molecules inside insulin molecules, which prevented solidification of the insulin molecules even when not refrigerated. While insulin requires to be kept at an ideal temperature of 4°C, now this new variety would be able to withstand a temperature of up to 65°C . The four year long research into the structural design of insu-lock was funded jointly by DST and CSIR.
The research has been lauded by iScience, (a science journal of international repute). Chatterjee said, after 12 hours of staying at normal room temperature, it reaches a stage where it
becomes unfit for use. "That is why it is so expensive. We are hopeful that DST and CSIR will now help us go for coporate tie-ups for mass production.
It is very good news. Hope western insulin producing companies will use this and pay proper royalty to the scientists and India.