Porcine

Porcine insulin (from pigs) is an exact amino acid match to that of dogs^[1].

It differs from human insulin in one position. At B #30 on the B insulin chain, dogs and pigs have Alanine, while people have Threonine. It differs from bovine in two positions, both on the A insulin chain: pigs have Threonine at A #8 while cows have Alanine. At the #10 position on the A insulin chain, pigs have Isoleucine--cows have Valine.

Cats, like cows, both have Alanine in the A #8 and Valine in the A #10 positions. But cats have Histidine in the A #18 position--pork or pig insulin has Asparagine--making 3 amino acid differences between porcine insulin and feline^[2].

Though this shows CP Pharma's Hypurin pork insulins^[3], this information would also apply to Novo's Pork Insulatard, Pork Actrapid, and Pork Mixtard 30^[4][5]. They can also be applied to compare these to Lilly's former Iletin II R and Iletin II NPH. The study at the link below found that pork R/Neutral is suitable to be used intravenously in cats^[6]

These insulins are natural and entirely or partly derived from pork (pig) sources. Only Iletin I R shown on the list below was a mixture of bovine and porcine insulins; it was composed primarily of beef (apx. 85/90%).

This means that they are identical to canine natural insulin, and a bit closer to feline than human insulin is.

Many humans also prefer porcine-based insulins, which are claimed by some to give a clearer warning of impending low blood sugar than the comparable human GE and analog insulins.

Porcine Insulins[]

See also bovine insulins.

Further Reading[]

Case Studies[]

• Wiki cases--Feline Caninsulin-Vetsulin (Porcine) users

• Wiki cases--Canine Caninsulin-Vetsulin (Porcine) users

References[]