(http://www.glucosemet ers4u.com/clinistixmedium.jpg)
In the case that your urine has glucose in it, your doctor will give you a blood test just to confirm your diagnosis. This blood test is also called a fasting blood glucose level as you will not be allowed to eat after midnight. You will then have a blood test in the morning- before you have had anything to eat to see your glucose levels. A glucose value of 140mg/dI or higher repeated over two tests usually shows that someone has diabetes; but if the blood test shows that your glucose levels in your blood are not high enough for you to have diabetes (in a normal fasting range of 70mg/dI – 110mg/dI) an oral glucose tolerance test which is also called glucose tolerance test. This test will show how your body is dealing with glucose, and you will be taking the test in a fasting state, and at least not eating for a minimum of 10 hours and a maximum of 16 hours. First your blood sugar level is tested and then you are given a liquid with a high amount of sugar to drink (75 grams of glucose and 100 grams for women who are pregnant) and a blood test is given every half hour or so for 3 hours. The test can only be reliable if your glucose levels aren’t affected, such as by illness or taking medicines. The way the test works to see if you have diabetes is that after you are given the first blood test before you drink it, your blood glucose levels will be low. After you drink, your blood glucose gets a lot higher- but in the case of someone having diabetes, the blood levels will go higher then someone without diabetes. After this the glucose in your blood levels decreases very quickly, but the glucose in someone with diabetes decreases much slower. This is because the pancreas cannot produce insulin or cannot produce working insulin, so the glucose levels cannot be kept at a normal level.
With these results one can conclude if someone has diabetes or not.
How is diabetes treated?
The aim of treatment for diabetes is for a person to achieve a blood glucose level to a normal standard. Treatment for diabetes is different for each diabetic; however, Insulin injections are commonly used- especially with people who have type 1 diabetes. It is possible for people with type 2 diabetes to get treated without the need of medication; a change in diet or more exercise (basically a healthy lifestyle) can treat type 2 diabetes. Nevertheless, 40% of people with type 2 diabetes may still have insulin shots and sometimes people with type 2 diabetes require oral medication such as tablets. Type 1 diabetes is more difficult to control because of the big lack of insulin that the pancreas should be producing. As for this difficulty, type 1 diabetes needs to be monitored constantly and needs a strict regime to follow, otherwise it may prove deadly. People with type 1 diabetes need a diet control (balanced diet), daily physical activities- exercise, home blood glucose testing several times a day and insulin injections several times a day. People with type 2 diabetes need to manage their diet (balanced diet with less sugar), exercise and require home blood glucose testing. Sometimes they may need oral medication or/and insulin injection. The reason that people with type 2 diabetes can manage their condition without a form of medication compared to those with type 2 diabetes is because people with type 2 have high blood glucose levels and just need to keep those levels lower (their bodies do not produce enough/any insulin or working insulin to control the glucose) whereas people with type 1 diabetes do not produce enough/any or working insulin, so they need to be injected with more insulin to control the glucose in the blood stream.
In some ways diabetes is not really ‘treated’ as yet there is no cure, but it can be ‘controlled’ and ‘managed’, people with diabetes can live a normal lifestyle and you won’t be able to tell who has diabetes and who doesn’t. I bet you didn’t know Nick Jonas from The Jonas Brothers has diabetes or Thomas Edison- the inventor of the magnificent light bulb.
http://www.fooducate.com/blog/tag/ada/
Someone injecting insulin into themselves
About insulin:
Insulin is a hormone which is made out of two amino acid chains (it is a protein), it is released by islet cells of the pancreas. Insulin allows for cells in the liver, muscles and fat tissue to store up glucose from the blood as glucogen.
The diagram above shows the process in which the pancreas releases insulin as a response to a high level blood glucose, on the other hand your blood sugar will drop during activities such as exercise, because of this the pancreas releases glucagon. The insulin will go into tissue cells which will lower the blood sugar. The glucogen is broken down into glucose inside the liver.
As people with diabetes haven’t got any/enough insulin, they will need to put their glucose level down; sometimes an insulin injection is used to put glucose levels down. The insulin comes from animals or now can be made using genetic engineering. The insulin from animals is usually insulin from cows (bovine) and pigs (porcine). Synthetic human insulin (insulin made by genetic engineering) is said to be far better than animal insulin. This is because synthetic human insulin is absorbed to the blood stream quicker and reduces the likeliness of autoimmune reactions or allergic, this is because synthetic insulin is modified so it is very similar to real human insulin, so it is less likely that the body will see these injected hormones as foreign. Also, synthetic human insulin is much cheaper than animal insulin, so it is affordable for people with a small amount of money.
Genetic Engineering
The meaning of genetic engineering is a modification of someone’s genes
Genetic Engineering has made a lot of impossible things to do in the past into possible things. It is now possible to clone human beings- though it is not legal in the United Kingdom, and it is also possible to prevent an unborn baby from inheriting a disease such as cystic fibrosis (if both or one of their parents are carriers or have this disease), this is called ‘gene therapy’ because the faulty genes are repaired or replaced.
Genetic Engineering has also made it possible to make synthetic human insulin, in 1978 scientists synthesized human insulin out of E coli bacteria; in 1982, Eli Lily marketed the first human insulin named ‘Humulin’. The way this is engineered is that the insulin gene is extracted and is inserted into the E coli cell, to produce insulin that is chemically and biologically identical to natural insulin. This is Recombinant DNA technology.
Insulin and ethical/moral issues
There are ethical/moral issues behind both types of insulin production. Insulin can be a problem for many religions if your source of insulin is from an animal. For instance, Muslims and Jews are not allowed to have pork, so they can’t have porcine insulin; also their meats have to be prepared in a special way (halal and kosher) so they can’t have bovine insulin- unless it is prepared as their religion states. However many Muslim/Jewish followers argue that if their life is at risk if they do not take the medicine they need, then it is permissible; on the other hand, nowadays it is more common to fine ‘Humulin’. Also, there are many vegetarians who cannot have insulin from animals, so they also choose to have Humulin. Most Hindu’s are vegetarian, but those who aren’t vegetarian aren’t’ allowed to have beef. With Humulin there is also ethical issues, some people believe that putting a human gene into a non-human organism isn’t very natural (putting a human insulin gene into an E coli cell to make insulin). However, people who believe this are persuaded by the fact that human genes have the same 4 bases as bacterial genes- so they are similar. Also, some people may not have a choice, as they may be vegetarian or cannot have certain meats and so using Humulin would be the only option. Or they may be against Humulin and so could only have animal insulin.
Nevertheless, if someone did not have a problem with both types of insulin, it would be better for them if they had Humulin. As I wrote in my essay previously the advantages of Humulin are that:
- It is cheaper than animal insulin
- There are fewer allergic reactions and less chance of an autoimmune reaction compared to animal insulin
- Is effective in a short period of time and is absorbed much quicker
Usually now, most patients who are diagnosed with diabetes mellitus are given Humulin, and existing patients who are already being treated with animal insulin are encouraged not to switch to Humulin. This is because there is increased hypoglycaemia following the transfer. Also, for some people living in developing countries, animal insulin maybe more accessible than Humulin.
+
The experiments
At school I had to do a few experiments to work out if the artificial ‘urine’ samples had glucose in them and the amount of glucose in the samples. In order to do this I had to do a qualitative test- using Clinistix (to see if there is any glucose in the samples) and quantative test- Benedict’s test (to see the amount of glucose in the samples). After this the samples were put in cuvettes and then entered into a colorimeter, to determine the concentration of the glucose. We worked in groups to undertake these experiments. In the first qualitative experiment each group had a different sample, with each person in a group undertaking the experiment with the same sample- to produce accurate results.
In the qualitative test the apparatus I used were:
- 5test tubes
- 5 samples of artificial ‘urine’ which were labelled ‘A,B,C,D,E’
- Clinistix
- Pipettes
What I did:
- Firstly using a pipette, I put 3ml of urine A into a test tube.
- Then, I dipped the pad end of the Clinistix into the test tube (with urine inside)
- I saw if the pad end had changed colour and recorded the result into a table
- Later we gathered the results of the other samples from other groups in the class (The exact experiment was repeated for each sample (B,C,D,E) , using a different test tube each time)
The aim of this experiment was to see which samples had glucose it, to see if the person whom the ‘urine’ belongs to has diabetes (if there is glucose in the sample).
Here is a table of the results of this experiment:
This table shows that all of the samples except for sample ‘A’ have glucose in them. This means that the people who produced the urine samples B, C, D, E, have diabetes because of this.
Evaluation of qualitative test
I believe this experiment was reliable because we repeated the experiment several times, as each person in a group carried out the experiment on the same sample and each group had a different sample. Also, because we repeated the experiment so many times, if there is a different result, we picked the average result that a group had. What made the experiment not reliable was that if there was an anomalous result; we didn’t figure out why there was an anomalous result and carried the experiment a few more times to make sure that the result was correct.
I believe this experiment was valid because it was a fair test. It was a fair test because I kept all the controlled variables the same during the experiment. For example, I used the same amount of ‘urine’ in each test tube, the same test tubes, and the same brand of Clinistix. The only thing I changed through-out the experiment was the different ‘urine’ samples (my independent variable). The dependent variable in this experiment was the colour of the end pad of the Clinistix.
Now that I knew the samples that had glucose and the sample that didn’t, I carried out a quantative test (which is Benedict’s test), so I could see how much glucose was in each sample.
In the Benedict’s test the apparatus we used were:
- 8 test tubes
- Benedict’s solution
- Bunsen burners
- Tripod
- Wire mesh
- Samples of artificial ‘urine’ (labelled 1%, 2%, 4% , 12% and B,C,D,E)
- Pipettes (crucial that a different pipette is used for each ‘urine’ sample)
- Beakers- with boiling water inside (2 beakers so that the 8 test tubes would be able to fit inside)
- Test tube holders
The reason why we had to use urine samples 1%, 2%, 4% and 12 % is so we could standardize the results and approximate the percentage of glucose in the urine samples B, C, D and E.
What me and my group did:
- Each of our group had one urine sample and put 1ml of this into separate test tubes using a pipette
- We each then added 10 drops of Benedict’s solution(using pipettes) into each test tube (which all then had ‘urine’ inside)
- We lighted the Bunsen burners( which each had a tripod over- with wire mesh laid down on the tripods- with beakers on top of the mesh) , using a test tube holder, we put each test tube into the beakers which were full of boiling water.
- We waited for the solution to boil and saw the colours the different urines had turned into. The higher the intensity of the colour, the more glucose there was in the samples.
After the colours had emerged from the samples, we needed to determine the amount of glucose in each sample. The way we did this is by making a standard curve (from the results of the 1%, 2%, 4% and 12 %) on a graph and putting the results of the light absorbency test of these samples (from the colorimeter) onto the graph. Then plotting the results of the urine samples B, C, D and E onto the graph and seeing the point of the standard curve line that the results hit- that would determine the percentage of glucose in those samples.
In the light absorbency test we the apparatus we used were:
- 8 cuvettes
- Test tube holders
- 8 artificial ‘urine’ samples (1 %, 2%, 4%, 12% and B, C, D and E)
- Colorimeter
Cuvettes are containers that are designed to hold samples for spectroscopic experiments (basically light absorbance experiments). 2 of its sides (opposite sides) are clear and the other 2 are cloudy. The clear side is the side with the arrow is the side that is put through to a colometer- so that a single beam passes it. Fingerprints on the clear side may affect the results so you have to be careful whilst holding it.
What we did:
- Using a test tube holder we each carefully poured our samples into the cuvettes
- We cautiously held onto the cloudy side of the cuvettes
- One at a time we put our cuvettes into a colorimeter
- We recorded the results into a table
The Results
To the left is a table of results showing the results of the experiment. You could see straight away for the 12% sample it is an anomalous result (0.36) because it is lower than the 4% result (0.62), when it should be higher.
Graph of results:
This graph shows the glucose concentration for ‘urine’ samples B, C, D and E using the standard curve. You could see that sample ‘B’ has approximately 2% glucose, sample ‘C’ has approximately 4% glucose, sample ‘D’ has approximately 1% glucose and sample ‘E’ has approximately 3% glucose.
Evaluation of Benedict’s test and colorimeter measuring
I believe that the Benedict’s test and the colorimeter measuring that we undertook wasn’t very reliable. This is because we didn’t repeat the test, and therefore could not fix the anomalous result that appeared on the graph from sample ‘12%’ (should have fitted standard curve, but was lower than 0.62- which was 4%, when it is meant to be higher). If we did repeat the test another way to of made it more reliable was to average the results from the experiments- but not include anomalous data. What could have went wrong to produce this anomalous data was maybe during the Benedict’s test more of Benedict’s solution could have been added to the urine then 10 drops or maybe during the colorimeter measuring the clear side of cuvette could have been covered in finger prints (where someone has held it) and therefore the light absorbency wouldn’t have been accurate.
However, I believe that the Benedict’s test and the colorimeter measuring were valid. This is because it was a fair test. It was fair test because I only had one independent variable, which was the urine sample. Everything else was kept the same, including the amount of time on the boil, the same Benedict’s solution, the same amount of Benedict’s solution (10 drops), the same amount of urine in each test tube (1ml in depth), the same colorimeter, the same cuvettes and the same test tubes. Also it was very crucial in our experiment, to make it a fair test, for us to use different pipettes for each urine samples so that the glucose in the urines don’t get mixed with other urines.
The way our experiment might not have been valid is that if the anomalous result was caused because of a different amount of Benedict’s solution added to the ‘sample 12% urine’ then our experiment wasn’t a fair test because we might have changed the amount of Benedict’s solution, thus we broke the experimental rule of only having one independent variable.
A way I could extend my research in the future is by repeating this experiment again and seeing whether my previous experiment was valid/accurate. Then I could make it reliable by averaging the result (without anomalous data) and checking the anomalous data at the end.
Conclusion
Diabetes Mellitus comes in two forms ‘type 1’ and ‘type 2’. When treating these types of diabetes, the aim of treatment is for the blood glucose level to regain its normal level. A doctor may give you a series of tests to diagnose your diabetes. This could be using Clinistix, Benedict’s test or an oral glucose tolerance test. All of these tests are designed to detect a higher level of urine/ blood sugar than normal – which could mean you have diabetes and your pancreas does not produce any/enough working insulin. For people with the much more common diabetes which is type 2 diabetes, it is a possibility to manage without medication and only needs diet control, but they may have oral medication or insulin injections. For people with type 1 diabetes they would have to have insulin injections daily. There are different types of insulin, synthetic human insulin (Humulin) or animal insulin. Many people find either of these unethical or they cannot have animal insulin due to religious reasons (such as not being allowed pork or beef or being a vegetarian), whilst others choose not to have the cheaper option, Humulin, because they think it’s un-natural to for human genes to be injected to something that isn’t human.
Diabetes is a condition that needs to be diagnosed carefully and accurately. As I discovered in my Benedict’s test experiment/colorimeter measuring, it is very easy to produce a wrong result. It was easy for me to find the anomaly (12% concentration, 0.36 light absorbency) because it did not fit the standard curve and I had a lot of other urine samples to compare to. On the other hand, doctors don’t compare the urine samples to other patients and that’s why they undertake a lot of tests to see if someone has diabetes.
It was a good idea to start with a Clinistix experiment, because that way I could easily exclude the ‘urine’ samples that did not have glucose in them and therefore test less urine samples for the Benedict’s test and then the light absorbency test (colorimeter measuring).
Doing the experiments have enabled me to have a better understanding of diabetes.
Bibliography
- Diabetes statistics
- background information about diabetes
- information about type 1 diabetes
- type 1 diabetes causes
- type 2 diabetes
- health problems caused by diabetes
- symptoms of diabetes
- symptoms of diabetes
- how diabetes is diagnosed
- about Benedict’s test
- the definition of chemical compound
- Benedict’s test
- medical definition of Benedict’s test
- about Clinistix™
– definition of enzyme
- how diabetes is diagnosed, oral glucose tolerance test
- treating diabetes
- insulin injection information
- famous people with diabetes
- About the hormone insulin
- About the hormone insulin
human genetic engineering
about synthetic human insulin
how synthetic human insulin is made
- how synthetic insulin is identical to natural insulin
how synthetic insulin is biologically identical to human insulin
ethics of genetic engineering
– diet and religion, diabetes
Humulin and its advantages
- Human insulin vs. animal insulin
- about cuvettes
- about Spectroscopy