Читать книгу Unveiling Diabetes - Historical Milestones in Diabetology - Группа авторов - Страница 25

In 1846 Claude Bernard began to focus his research on the study of metabolism and started his experiments to understand the function of the pancreas. In the 1816 edition of the textbook by his master, Magendie, it was still stated that the function of the pancreas was a mystery. In later years, the pancreas was considered to be an additional salivary gland. It was Claude Bernard who discovered that the secretion of the pancreas does not only help with digesting carbohydrates. Through a series of experiments, he was able to prove that the pancreatic juice could split fat into fatty acids and glycerine, and that proteins were dissolved by pancreatic juice after adding bile. Claude also noticed that the fetal pancreas had no effect on fat and found that the function of the pancreas on digestion begins only a very short time before birth. “Banting’s idea,” which indirectly resulted in the Noble prize for the treatment of diabetes with insulin, was based upon this finding. Bernard also tried pancreatectomy in dogs. Most attempts failed, except one – the dog survived but did not become diabetic. One can assume that, in this case, the pancreatectomy had not been complete. The discovery of pancreatic diabetes had to wait for the brilliant surgical skills of Minkowski and von Mering in 1889.