Circulating IgG antibody to protamine in patients treated with protamine-insulins

✍ Scribed by A. B. Kurtz; R. S. Gray; S. Markanday; J. D. N. Nabarro

• Book ID: 104683771
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 316 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-186X
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00253194

✦ Synopsis

Sera from patients with different types of protamine-insulin were assayed for IgG antibody to protamine. A high prevalence of circulating antibody was found in patients treated with either bovine isophane insulin (26 out of 28 patients; 26 of whom also had antibodies to insulin), or bovine protamine zinc insulin (27 out of 30 patients; all 30 had antibodies to insulin). In sera from 24 patients treated with highly purified porcine isophane insulin, protamine antibody was detected in nine; circulating insulin-antibody was detected in 12 patients, eight of whom had protamine-antibody; in the 12 patients with no detectable antibody to insulin, antibody to protamine was detected in only one (x2 = 8.7, p less than 0.01). This relationship between insulin and protamine antigenicity is of interest as it suggests that the protamine-insulin complex is itself immunogenic.