IMMUNITY IN DIABETES. II. RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF NUTRITIONAL STATE AND OF BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL IN INFLUENCING DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGGLUTININ AFTER TYPHOID VACCINE

Abstract

It was previously shown that diabetic patients have less antibody than normal controls, both by bactericidal tests and by formation of agglutinin following typhoid vaccine. In this work the nutritional state and hyperglycemia, as outstanding characteristics of diabetes, were studied in animals to detn. their influence on the formation of antibodies. Poorly fed rabbits, which had a low liver glycogen, made much less antibody following standard typhoid vaccine than normal, well-fed controls, which had a high liver glycogen. Rabbits maintained with hyperglycemia by epinephrine subcut. for 7-14 hrs. each day during the exp., formed antibody as well as the controls with normal blood sugars. A re-examination of the data of the previous article shows no essential difference in blood sugars in patients with high or low antibody formation. These observations suggest that the state of cellular nutrition is more important than the level of blood sugar in determining the antibody response.