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Pancreatic islets
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Inside the pancreas there are cells called beta cells, and they live organized in groups known as islets, microscopic islands of tissue scattered across the organ. Those beta cells have exactly one job: to make insulin.
In type 1 diabetes, something very specific happens. The immune system, the defense whose job is to attack whatever does not belong in the body, turns on those beta cells, attacks them, and destroys them. And since they are precisely the ones that make insulin, every one lost is one less factory on the island. What is left in the end is fewer beta cells able to produce it.
In brief
In the pancreas, beta cells are grouped into clusters called islets.
Inside those microscopic islets, beta cells make insulin.
From larger to smaller, the scale is pancreas, islet, and beta cell. Insulin is produced at that final, cellular level.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys those beta cells. As those insulin-producing cells are lost, fewer beta cells remain to make insulin.
Sources (2)
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney DiseasesDiabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases: Recent Advances & Emerging OpportunitiesPublished
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney DiseasesWhat Is Diabetes?
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated