literally meaning all-flesh, presumably because of its fleshy consistency. It was only in 1889 when Oskar Minkowski discovered that removing the pancreas from a dog caused it to become diabetic. Insulin was later isolated from pancreatic islets by Frederick Banting and Charles Herbert Best in 1921. The way the tissue of the pancreas has been viewed has also changed. Previously, it was viewed using simple staining methods such as H&E stains. Now, immunohistochemistry can be used to more easily differentiate cell types. This involves visible antibodies to the products of certain cell types, and helps identify with greater ease cell types such as alpha and beta cells. Other animals Pancreatic tissue is present in all vertebrates, but its precise form and arrangement varies widely. There may be up to three separate pancreases, two of which arise from ventral buds, and the other dorsally. In most species (including humans), these "fuse" in the adult, but there are several exceptions. Even when a single pancreas is present, two or three pancreatic ducts may persist, each draining separately into the duodenum (or equivalent part of the foregut). Birds, for example, typically have three such ducts. In teleost fish, and a few other species (such as rabbits), there is no discrete pancreas at all, with pancreatic tissue being distributed diffusely across the mesentery and even within other nearby organs, such as the liver or spleen. In a few teleost species, the endocrine tissue has fused to form a distinct gland within the abdominal cavity, but otherwise it is distributed among the exocrine components. The most primitive arrangement, however, appears to be that of lampreys and lungfish, in which pancreatic tissue is found as a number of discrete nodules within the wall of the gut itself, with the exocrine portions being little different from other glandular structures of the intestine. Cuisine The pancreas of calf (ris de veau) or lamb (ris d'agneau), and, less commonly, of beef or pork, are used as food under the culinary name of sweetbread. Additional images References Bibliography External links Pancreas at the Human Protein Atlas Pancreatic Diseases – English – The Gastro Specialist