Insulin the simplest unicellular eukaryotes. Apart from animals, insulin-like proteins are also known to exist in the Fungi and Protista kingdoms. Insulin is produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets in most vertebrates and by the Brockmann body in some teleost fish. Cone snails "Conus geographus" and "Conus tulipa", venomous sea snails that hunt small fish, use modified forms of insulin in their venom cocktails. The insulin toxin, closer in structure to fishes' than to snails' native insulin, slows down the prey fishes by lowering their blood glucose levels. The preproinsulin precursor of insulin is encoded by the "INS" gene.
Insulin (medication) Medical preparations of insulin are never just 'insulin in water'. Clinical insulins are specially prepared mixtures of insulin plus other substances including preservatives. These delay absorption of the insulin, adjust the pH of the solution to reduce reactions at the injection site, and so on. Slight variations of the human insulin molecule are called insulin analogues, (technically "insulin receptor ligands") so named because they are not technically insulin, rather they are analogues which retain the hormone's glucose management functionality. They have absorption and activity characteristics not currently possible with subcutaneously injected insulin proper. They are either absorbed rapidly in an