Bernardo Houssay Reveals Another Side of Blood Sugar

By the time Bernardo Houssay received the Nobel Prize in 1947, insulin had already transformed the treatment of diabetes. The pancreas was central to the explanation of blood sugar, but it was not acting alone. Working in Argentina, Houssay investigated how hormones associated with the pituitary gland affected carbohydrate metabolism. His research helped change the question from which organ controls a process to how different organs influence one another within a living system.

The experimental work involved animals and interventions that altered the activity of endocrine organs. Researchers compared the effects of removing the pancreas, the pituitary or both, observing how the resulting metabolic conditions differed. These procedures were invasive, and their historical importance should not hide the ethical questions surrounding animal experimentation. Their scientific significance lay in showing an interaction: the severity of diabetes after loss of pancreatic function could change when pituitary influence was also removed.