So, our refrigerator has been having variable temperatures, depending on where things are stored. Some stuff on the top shelf, like lettuce, has icicles on it, though things in liquid don’t seem to be completely frozen.
Samson’s insulin is usually stored on the door, but some of the extra might have been stored on the top shelf at one point – I’m not sure if that period coincides with when things on the top got frozen. Right now all of the insulin is definitely not frozen, but I have no idea if some of it might have been frozen in the past.
Anyways, long story short, I’m wondering if there are any test strips you can use to measure whether insulin is still effective? And if not, someone needs to invent that!
Ouch, sorry to hear that some of your insulin may have been frozen. With that being said, I had to work really really hard to freeze the insulin for our experiment, and even resorted to our deep freeze to actually freeze the stuff, and even then it worked, just not the same as non-frozen. Good luck on your strip hunt, but I think everything will be fine.
My wife, a biologist, treats her cell cultures with insulin. Not the same as we use, but similar. She says that they make it in 1-liter batches and they freeze the solution between uses. Heat destroys insulin. When the vial thaws, just give it a good shake and you will probably be OK.
The base stock of insulin powder her lab uses is ridiculously cheap. Too bad that human use is not approved.