Endocrine function of the surgically reduced pancreas

Abstract

The investigations of von Meting and Minkowski (1890) first demonstrated that it is possible to resect large portions of the pancreas without producing diabetes or glycosuria. Minkowski (1890, 1893) found that as little as one-quarter or one-fifth of the pancreas suffices to control glycosuria. Allen (1913) observed that diabetes follows very rarely when one-sixth or one-seventh of the pancreas remains; with an eighth of the pancreas remaining diabetes is mild; if only one-tenth remains the diabetes is pronounced, although in the experimental protocols there were cases without glycosutia in dogs in which only 2 to 3 gin. of pancreas remained. Both Minkowski and Hedon (1898) found that very small portions of the pancreas prevent diabetes, although it was easier to produce alimentary glycosuria in depancreatized than in normal animals.