Why 100-Years After the Discovery of Insulin and the Appearance of Insulin-Induced
Lipodystrophy: Are We Still Struggling with this Nasty Complication?
About 100-years have passed since the first experiments led by the pathophysiologist
Paulesco who corrected hyperglycemia by injecting pancreatic juice into the diabetic dog.
In December 1922, after visiting Toronto, the Danish physiologist August Krogh
with his diabetic wife Marie, a physiologist herself, extracted insulin
from 2 kg of fresh bovine pancreas at a time in the cellar of his
home in Hellerup (Copenhagen, Denmark), with the help of Hans
Christian Hagedorn and the pharmacist Norman B Jensen.
In May 1923, Hagedorn founded the Nordisk Insulin Laboratorium with August Kongsted,
owner of the Löve (Leo) pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry of the same name,
and immediately produced sufficient amounts of insulin to successfully treat the first
eight patients with diabetes admitted to the Kommunehospital in Copenhagen.
Meanwhile, in January 1923, Eli Lilly had already produced 100,000 Units of insulin
(“Iletin”) per week, and in May 1923, in England, Burroughs Wellcome and the Boots Pure Drug
Company were marketing insulin (20 U per ml in 5 ml vials) for £ 1.25.4
In the same years, lipodystrophies, i.e., complications at the injection site,
immediately occurred (Figure 1).5-14 Until the advent of human insulins in 1982
and the first fast-acting analog in 1999, lipoatrophic (LA) lesions were widespread
Diabetes Res Open J. 2022; 8(1): 23-29. doi: 10.17140/DROJ-8-156
