Biology: Cell and Insulin Essay

The human body is made up from lots of complex cells with different forms and functions. For my assignment I will be looking at the pancreatic beta cell which is responsible for releasing and creating insulin and amylin within the human body. I will first talk about what a cell is and then talk about the beta cell and how it produces the hormone called insulin.
All cells are surrounded by a structure called the cell membrane which acts very much like the walls to a house. This forms a clear boundary between what’s on the outside and the inside environment. The cell membrane is sometimes referred to as the plasma membrane. The cell is the smallest functional living organism. There is around 10 trillion cells within the Human body and there often referred to as the building blocks of life. Cells come from pre-existing cells and all organisms are composed of more than one cell. All cells carry hereditary information necessary for regulating and transmitting information to the new cells. See figure1.
Figure1. The structure of a cell www.jeffdonofrio.net Beta cells are responsible for creating the hormone insulin and amylin. These cells are found in the islets of the Langerhans which are located within the pancreas. The pancreas holds around a million islets which 70% of them are beta cell. Beta cells not only produce insulin but they also release a by-product known as c-peptide. Proteins are synthesised in the beta cell by using various organelles within the human body. These organelles form the structure of the cell. See figure1. Glucose aids the rate of protein synthesis within the pancreatic beta cells. Insulin and glucagon are both synthesized through a glucose transporter which stores glucose for energy in the cells. This helps utilize the protein, fat and minerals which the body breaks down into sugar molecules, lipid molecules and also amino acid molecules. Insulin stores these important nutrients while glucagon’s role is to release them from storage when they are needed. Insulin is a peptide hormone and it is made up of 51 amino acids. Insulin is connected together by disulfide bonds and stored within the body as a six molecule unit known as a hexamer. There is a substantial amount of different types of insulin. There is slow reacting insulin, fast acting insulin and long lasting insulin.
The whole process starts with the cell membrane which supports the insulin hormone and keeps it in a safe environment. The cell membrane controls the very movement of material leaving and entering the cell. The cell membrane comprises of phospholipids, cholesterol and proteins. This is possibly the most important organelle in the cell as it holds everything together and intact. The cell membrane is known as the phospholipid bilayer which contains an inner and outer layer of phospholipids. These phospholipids provide a strong barrier.
As you can see for figure3 the phospholipid molecule generally consists of a hydrophobic tail and a hydrophilic head. It is found with cholesterol molecules in between the gaps of the phospholipid.
The head is hydrophilic which means it’s attracted to water and the hydrophilic tails are
As you can see for figure3 the phospholipid molecule generally consists of a hydrophobic tail and a hydrophilic head. It is found with cholesterol molecules in between the gaps of the phospholipid.
The head is hydrophilic which means it’s attracted to water and the hydrophilic tails are
Figure2 shows the barrier and the phospholipids role within a cell.

Insulin production starts within the nucleus of the beta cell. The nucleus very importantly holds deoxyribonucleic acid which is commonly known as (DNA). DNA contains a code of information which aids the production of various proteins, one of them being insulin. DNA is unable to leave the nucleus so it has to make a copy of the gene to produce insulin. This helps the nucleus to transcribe RNA molecules which later get transcribed. This is called the

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