There are many different types of insulin available for the treatment of diabetes. Insulin can be classified by its source i.e. how it is prepared by its action i.e. how it acts in the body A detailed list of all insulins currently available in the UK, along with their source and manufacturer can be found in Available Insulins . Insulin manufacture Early insulin preparations were purified quite crudely from pancreas tissue extracted from animals either pigs or cattle. Today, insulin is mostly made biosynthetically by recombinant DNA technology or genetic engineering . The insulin that humans make differs from that which pigs and cows make.
Porcine insulin has one different amino acid and bovine insulin has three different amino acids.
Luckily, these very slight differences do not affect the way in which the insulin works inside the human body. These days, animal insulins are made from highly purified pancreas extracts and are marketed as 'natural' insulins. Human insulins Human insulin is not prepared from human pancreas tissue. It is prepared on a large scale by modern molecular technology. Porcine insulin can be chemically modified so that it resembles human insulin.