IMMUNITY IN DIABETES. III. RELATION OF TISSUE GLYCOGEN AND BLOOD CHEMISTRY TO BACTERIAL DISSEMINATION, ANTIBODY FORMATION AND SURVIVAL AFTER INFECTION IN DIABETES

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Abstract
Further studies were made on rabbits, depan-creatized cats, and diabetic patients to determine what influence might be exerted by some of the alterations in blood and tissue chemistry, commonly found in diabetes, on the ability of the body to resist infection. Investigations included the influence of sugar of the blood, cholesterol, protein, albumin and globulin of the serum and glycogen of liver, muscle and skin on (1) ability to form antibodies in patients and exptl. animals, (2) survival time after intraven. inoculation of animals with bacteria, (3) spread of bacteria throughout the body from an experimentally inoculated focus and (4) the ability of the blood to destroy the bacteria in vivo. A significant correlation is shown to exist in normal rabbits and depancreatized cats between the per-centile amount of glycogen in the liver and the survival time after intravenous inoculation with bacteria. A lowered nutritional state, accompanied by decreased liver glycogen, is shown to exist in depancreatized cats in which a low agglutinative titer is found after injection of B. typhosus vaccine. Alterations in the blood of these animals, such as are commonly found in diabetic patients, do not appear to influence the survival time or the ability to form agglutinins. The organs of depancreatized cats 24 hours after an intra-dermal inoculation with bacteria show the presence of these bacteria with greater frequency than do the organs of normal controls. Alterations in the sugar of the blood and of the cholesterol, protein, albumin and globulin in the serum and glycogen in the liver do not appear to influence this dissemination of bacteria from a focus. Acidosis appears to increase the frequency with which this dissemination of bacteria occurs. The percentile amt. of glycogen in the skin of depancreatized cats shows a suggestive, though not clearly significant, correlation with this dissemination of bacteria from a skin focus to the organs of the body.