Editing Alpha cell (section)

== Discovery ==
Islets of Langerhans were first discussed by Paul Langerhans in his medical thesis in 1869.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jörgens |first=Viktor |date=2020 |title=Paul Langerhans: The Man Who Discovered the Islets |url=https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/506551 |journal=Unveiling Diabetes - Historical Milestones in Diabetology |series=Frontiers in Diabetes |language=english |volume=29 |pages=25–35 |doi=10.1159/000506551|isbn=978-3-318-06733-0 |s2cid=226502826 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This same year, [[Édouard Laguesse]] named them after Langerhans.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Lane |first=Michael |date=1907 |title=The Cytological Characters of the Areas of Langerhans |journal=The American Journal of Anatomy |volume=VII |issue=3 |pages=409–422|doi=10.1002/aja.1000070304 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/70305 |hdl=2027/mdp.39015067353063 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> At first, there was a lot of controversy about what the Islets were made of and what they did.<ref name=":1" /> It appeared that all of the cells were the same within the Islet, but were histologically distinct from acini cells.<ref name=":1" /> Laguesse discovered that the cells within the Islets of Langerhans contained granules that distinguished them from acini cells.<ref name=":1" /> He also determined that these granules were products of the metabolism of the cells in which they were contained.<ref name=":1" /> Michael Lane was the one to discover that alpha cells were histologically different than [[beta cell]]s in 1907.<ref name=":1" />

Before the function of alpha cells was discovered, the function of their metabolic product, glucagon, was discovered. The discovery of the function of glucagon coincides with the discovery of the function of [[insulin]]. In 1921, Banting and Best were testing pancreatic extracts in dogs that had had their pancreas removed. They discovered that "insulin-induced hypoglycemia was preceded by a transient, rather mild hyperglycemia..."<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Gromada |first1=Jesper |last2=Franklin |first2=Isobel |last3=Wollheim |first3=Claes B. |date=2007-02-01 |title=α-Cells of the Endocrine Pancreas: 35 Years of Research but the Enigma Remains |journal=Endocrine Reviews |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=84–116 |doi=10.1210/er.2006-0007 |pmid=17261637 |issn=0163-769X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Murlin is credited with the discovery of glucagon because in 1923 they suggested that the early hyperglycemic effect observed by Banting and Best was due to "a contaminant with glucogenic properties that they also proposed to call 'glucagon,' or the mobilizer of glucose".<ref name=":2" /> In 1948, Sutherland and de Duve established that alpha cells in the pancreas were the source of glucagon.<ref name=":2" />