17 CELLULAR AND HUMORAL IMMUNE AGGRESSION AND PANCREATIC FUNCTION IMPAIRMENT IN CHLDREN WITH SPORADIC HYPERGLYCEMIA WITHOUT FAMILIAL HISTORY OF TYPE I DIABETES

Abstract

Diabetes Experimental, Centro de Invsstigaciones Endocrinológicas (CEDIE), Htal de Niños R. Gutiérrez y Sectión Diabetes, Htal. “A, Posadas”, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Forty five children with sporadic hyperglycemias were studied (normal fasting glycemia, with 2 or more sporadic postprandial hyperglycemias). Controls were healthy children without familial history of diabetes or associated autoimmune diseases, Humoral immunity was detected by the presence of insulin autoantibodies (IAA) according to Palmer;all sera higher than X̄ control±3 SD were considered positive. Cellular immune aggression (CIA) was evaluated by coculturing lymphocytes with dispersed rat islet cells (central group:X̄±2 SD: 29.66±3.06 insulin uU/5000 cells/5 min, n=22) according to the immune markers and taken into consideration the pancreatic function (ins. secr. IS;control group:137.6±78.3 insulin uU, min 1±3 post i.v. glucose, X̄+2 SD, n=15) patients ware divided in two groups. Group A:14/24 with normal IS;1/4 IAA+ve;7/14 CIA+ve and 6|14 without any aggressicn. Group B:10/24 with impaired IS (than X̄ central - 2 SD);5/10 IAA+ve; 10/10 CIA+ve and 5/10 with both immune markers + ve. The results showed that in children with sporadic hyperglycemia:1). The presence of CIA is an early marker since it was found in 50% of children without IS inpaiment or IAA and in all these with impaired IS. 2)IAA were present in 7.14% of children with normal IS and in a 50% of those with impaired IS;3)35% of all children with sporadic hyperglycemia shewed IS impairment and CIA+ve, suggesting that this could be a group at risk of developing Type I diabetes.