The first experimental diabetes mellitus

FS Keck, EF Pfeiffer - Acta diabetologia latina, 1989 - Springer
FS Keck, EF Pfeiffer
Acta diabetologia latina, 1989Springer
In the history of diabetes research, surgically induced experimental diabetes is usually
associated with the names of Minkowski and von Mering on the basis of their investigations
in 1889. However, temporary diabetes mellitus had already been induced 200 years
previously by Johann Conrad Brunner (1653–1727) in an experiment in dogs. According to
present-day knowledge, this temporary diabetes mellitus must be ascribed to subtotal
pancreatectomy and reversible traumatic damage to the remaining endocrine pancreas. The …
Summary
In the history of diabetes research, surgically induced experimental diabetes is usually associated with the names of Minkowski and von Mering on the basis of their investigations in 1889. However, temporary diabetes mellitus had already been induced 200 years previously by Johann Conrad Brunner (1653–1727) in an experiment in dogs. According to present-day knowledge, this temporary diabetes mellitus must be ascribed to subtotal pancreatectomy and reversible traumatic damage to the remaining endocrine pancreas. The brilliant experimenter Brunner did not associate the symptoms he produced with diabetes. Diabetes research would possibly have taken a different course had he done so.
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