Summary
Sera from patients treated 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 (χ2 = 8.7, P<0.01). This relationship between insulin and protamine antigenicity is of interest as it suggests that the protamine-insulin complex is itself immunogenic.
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Kurtz, A.B., Gray, R.S., Markanday, S. et al. Circulating IgG antibody to protamine in patients treated with protamine-insulins. Diabetologia 25, 322–324 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00253194
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00253194