1. Alfa cell: it secretes hormone Glucagon

2. Beta cell: it secretes hormone insulin

3. Delta cell: it secretes somatostatin hormone.

How normally Insulin helps in up taking Glucose?

Through digestive system first of all the carbohydrate, fat and protein breakdown take place from where the body gets glucose. Carbohydrate is a main source of energy and fat is the concentrated source of energy. Protein is for overall growth if CHO and fat is not present then only protein breakdown take place for the energy.

Once the glucose is formed the enzyme called alfa glucosidase aids in absorption of glucose into the blood. As, glucose enters the blood, beta cell start secreting insulin hormone. It is similar to lock and key, the body cell contains Insulin receptor which acts as lock and Insulin act as key. For the entry of glucose into the cell insulin binds the insulin receptor and opens the door. Once glucose is metabolized then it provides the energy to body.
Glucose is like gold for our body; our body never let the glucose to move out of our body as a waste. The remaining glucose is stored in the liver in the form of glycogen. So insulin helps in carrying glucose to the cells and secondly it helps in formation of glycogen from glucose.
When glucose is not available in body the stored glycogen is converted into glucose with the help of hormone glucagon which is secreted by the alfa cell. And somatostatin suppresses the activity of both insulin as well as glucagon.

Our body produces two types of insulin:

1. Basal Insulin: This insulin takes care of the basal glucose.

2. Bolus Insulin: This insulin takes care of sudden increase in glucose after having lmeal.

Structure of insulin

Proinsulin is the structure secreted by the beta cell. Proinsulin is a precursor for insulin. The proinsulin breaks down into several pieces to form insulin. Insulin contains total 51 amino acid where A chain contains 21 amino acid and B chain contains 30 amino acid. Tha A chain and B chain is connected by the connecting peptide. It also contains disulfide bonds.

Types of Insulin:

Bolus Insulin:

1. Rapid acting

2. Short acting

Basal insulin:

1. Long acting

2. Intermediate acting Insulin

Premixed Insulin:

1. Regular/Neutral Protamine based (NPH)

2. Lispro/Neutral Protamine Lispro based (NPL)

Signs and Symptoms of Diabetes

The diabetic patients are more prone to the complications hence they have to be aware with the signs and symptoms associated with the diabetes to avoid the further complications.

The diabetic patients have three cardinal symptoms i.e.

• Polyphagia: Excessive hunger (Phage means to eat). Due to either insulin deficiency or insulin resistance the glucose is not entering into the cell thus the cells remains devoid of energy hence the person feel hungry frequently.

• Polyuria: Excessive Urination. In a normal person the Renal threshold value is 180mg/dL it means the renal tubule present in the urinary system can absorb up to 180mg/dL of glucose. In normal person’s urine, glucose is not present. But in diabetic patients the glucose concentration exceeds the value 180mg/dL and hence more urine production takes place in order to remove excess of glucose.

• Polydipsia: Excessive Thirst. As the water loss is more due to frequent urination it generates unusual thirst.

The Type 1 diabetic patients looses their weight because the insulin production is very less due to which the cells are not receiving the glucose so in order to fulfill the demand of glucose the fat breakdown takes place which may lead to ketoacidosis ( where the blood becomes acidic).
While in case of Type 2 diabetic patient there is no weight loss and they are more prone to Hyperosmolor non ketotic coma (where the blood becomes thick).

The other symptoms of the diabetes are:

• Rapid weight loss: Type1 diabetic patients are more prone to weight loss and it is very infrequent in case of Type 2 diabetic patients.

• Extreme fatigue: As the muscle or adipose tissue is not receiving glucose the patient feels more weakness as well as tiredness.

• Frequent infections: The diabetic patients are more prone to the fungal infection. The wound healing process takes place very slowly and because of which they are more prone to the fungal infection.

• Recurring skin, gum, bladder infections: The diabetic patients are more prone to periodontitis, dry mouth etc. The chances of losing the teeth are more in diabetic patients.

• Nausea & Vomiting: The Type 1 diabetic patients are more prone to nausea and vomiting which then may lead to hypolycemia.

• Sweet smelling breath: The Sweet smell will come out from the mouth of the diabetic patient and it is because of the production of ketone bodies production.

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder which is characterized by the disturbance in the metabolism of carbohydrate, fat and protein which may be due to either insulin deficiency or insulin resistance.
Prevalence of diabetes in world and India.

• According to the recent WHO report, the prevalence of diabetes in adults worldwide will rise from 246 million in 2007 to 380 million in the year 2025. By the year 2025, more than 75% of people with diabetes will reside in developing countries.
• The countries with the largest numbers of people with diabetes are and will be in the year 2025, India, China and the U.S.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently acknowledged that India has the maximum number of diabetic patients in any given country in the year 1995 (19 million) and that this would increase to 80.3 million by the year 2025. India has thus become the “Diabetic Capital of the World”.

Causes of diabetes/Etiology

• Obesity
• Overweight
• Lack of exercise
• Eating more sugar
• Heredity
• Autoimmunity
• Coxsackie virus
• During pregnancy
• Due to pancreatic disorder
• Due to hormonal disorder
• May be drug induced

Types of Diabetes Mellitus

• Type 1 diabetes: caused due to lack of insulin
• Type 2 diabetes: caused due to insulin resistance
• Gestational diabetes: developed during pregnancy
• Secondary diabetes: may be drug induced, pancreatic disorder, hormonal disorder

Signs and symptoms of diabetes

• Polyuria: Excessive urination
• Polydipsia: Excessive thirst
• Polyphagia: Excessive eating
• rapid weight loss
• extreme fatigue
• frequent infections
• recurring skin, gum, bladder infections
• Nausea & Vomiting
• Sweet smelling breath
• Impotence

Diagnosis of diabetes

• Urine test
• Blood test

• Fasting plasma glucose test (FPG)
• Post prandial glucose test (PPG)
• Random plasma glucose test (RPG)
• Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)

Complications of Diabetes

1. Chronic diabetes
• Microvascular complications

• Nephropahty: disorder related to Kidney
• Neuropathy: disorder related to neurons
• Retinopathy: disorder related to retina

• Macrovascular macrovascular

• Cerebrovascular: e.g. paralysis
• Peripheral vascular: e.g. gangrene, diabetic foot
• Cardiovascular: e.g. heart attack

2. Acute diabetes

• Hypoglycemia
• Diabetic ketoacidosis
• Hyperosmolar non ketotic coma

Treatment of Diabetes

• Oral Hypoglycemic agents (OHA)

• Sulphonylurea
• Meglitinides
• Biguanides
• Thiazolidinediones
• Alfa glycosidase Inhibitor

• Insulin

• Basal Insulin
• Bolus Insulin
• Premixed insulin

There might be thousands of such unusual questions in our minds regarding the beautiful nature and its numerous resides. See yourself in the mirror today, and just think of how a human like us got created in the course of evolution since the starting of the earth. Surprisingly there is just one answer to all these questions of yours, and that is “Biology”. Biology is like the vast ocean made of several small drops of water. Thus biology has been divided into thousands of smaller and bigger subparts which are further subdivided into many other smaller parts. All these small parts of biology are the answers to your grooving questions. Biology is a Greek word meaning bios-life and logy- study, i.e the study of life. Thus as the definition suggests, it is the branch of Natural science or live science which describes the anatomical study of the organisms and the way they interact with each other.

A vast subject like biology can never be compressed into a single topic. So, in order to understand and know the base we have divided the subject into the following categories. These are individually separate branches of the mother tree which by themselves have become a huge, incomparable section of biology.

• Evolution
• Cell biology
• Molecular biology
• Ecology
• Botany
• Zoology
• Microbiology
• Biotechnology
• Human biology
• Genetics
• Bioinformatics
• Physiology