Abstract
Summary
The phagocytic and bactericidal efficiency for rough strain pneumococcus by leucocytes recovered from venous blood of diabetic patients was compared to cells from healthy controls. Both cells and bacteria were suspended in autologous serum and subjected to gentle rotational mixing. It was found that the phagocytic activity, the phagocytic index, and the killing capacity of white blood cells from diabetics equaled that of the controls. This was so even when glucose levels of the serum used for resuspending the mixture were artificially increased by introducing sugar from exogenous sources. It was of interest that no matter how poor had been the control of the diabetes, patients with keto-acidosis and complicating infection were excluded from the study, no evidence was found for an impaired function by these cells.
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