Discovery of the pancreatic islets
Descubrimiento de los islotes pancreáticos
- Date
- 1869 · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Paul Langerhans
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
In his thesis on microscopic anatomy, medical student Paul Langerhans describes clusters of cells in the pancreas distinct from the surrounding digestive tissue, not yet knowing their endocrine function.
The endocrine function of these 'islets of Langerhans' (name coined later by Gustave-Édouard Laguesse) was not understood until the discovery of insulin decades later.
What it led to
- Later identification of insulin in these cells (Banting and Best, 1921)
- Modern understanding of diabetes mellitus
- Birth of pancreatic endocrinology