Learn About Insulin
This is Insulin.
In this tetrahedral structure, each individual tetrahedron is an amino acid. The tetrahedrons come together to make a chain of amino acids, which is a protein.
What is Insulin?
Insulin is a hormone (a special protein) that helps your body control blood sugar.
Insulin starts off as a monomer. When 2 monomers join together it forms a dimer. When 3 dimers joins together, it forms a hexamer. Hexamers are the most active form of insulin. Multiple hexamers join together to form an insulin crystal.
Monomer
Dimer
Hexamer
How does Insulin work?
After you eat, sugar from your food enters your bloodstream. That’s when your pancreatic beta cells release insulin to help move sugar into your cells, where it can be used for energy or stored for later.
Click the link below to explore insulin up close:
In this special feature from the RCSB Protein Data Bank’s 101 Teaching Module, you’ll get to see a real 3D structure of insulin, learn how it’s built, stored, and activated, and discover how insulin therapies are made for people with diabetes.
Click the link below to explore the RCSB Protein Data Bank’s information on the human insulin hexamer:
On the above linked RCSB Protein Data Bank page, you can explore insulin’s 3D ribbon structure, literature related to insulin, experiments, sequencing, genomes, and variations of this protein.
Watch some InnerSpace videos that explain how insulin works:
Watch an InnerSpace explainer video showing how insulin is packaged in the pancreatic beta cell:
Watch an InnerSpace explainer video about how insulin is released from the pancreatic beta cell:
Watch an InnerSpace explainer video about how insulin is packaged and a GLP-1 signal stimulates its release from the pancreatic beta cell:
There are many proteins on the insulin secretion pathway that help insulin form and be released from the pancreatic beta cell.
Click on the below links to learn more from RCSB Protein Data Bank 101 profiles about proteins that help detect glucose, send signals, and release insulin.
The pathway discussed above that all of these proteins contribute to can be represented as a subway map within the pancreatic beta cell created by InnerSpace.
Click below to explore more about the pathway: