As a result of the key advances made more than 30 years ago, specifically the ability to isolate islets of Langerhans from the pancreas, the ability to measure insulin accurately by immunoasay, and the development of microchemical techniques for studying cells and their components, many research volumes, symposium reports, and original papers have been produced. This explosion of interest has probably had at least three stimuli:

1. the inherent scientific interest in understanding secretion of the pancreatic -cell 2. the -cells relevance to a very common disease 3. the availability of...