The Effect on Blood Sugar of Injections of Bacteria.

Abstract

Intercurrent infection unfavorably influences the course of diabetes. Graham 1 finds that infection may be instrumental in precipitating the diabetic into a state of coma. Graham 1 and also Rabinowitch 2 report that infection diminishes the potency of insulin. The dosage required to lower the blood sugar to a certain level is much greater in a diabetic in whom infection is present than in one without this complication. Clinical evidence is accumulating with reference to the fact that infection, focal or generalized, may be an etiological factor in diabetes mellitus. Rosenow has recently demonstrated a relation between focal infection and this disease. 3

Infection in the non-diabetic has been reported by several investigators to give rise to hyperglycemia. 4 The invading organism is believed to lower the carbohydrate tolerance. 5 Menten and Manning, 6 and Jeckwer and Goodell 7 have demonstrated hyperglycemia as a result of the injection of some types of bacteria. Thomas 8 observed that guinea pigs in whose organs bacilli of the enteridis-paratyphoid B group were isolated, showed characteristic lesions in the pancreas, such as hydropic degeneration of the islands of Langerhans.

In view of the above facts, a study of the relation to carbohydrate metabolism of bacteria invading the animal organism is of paramount importance. The experiments here reported deal with the effect on the sugar level in the blood of rabbits receiving intraperitoneal injections of three billion heat-killed bacteria. The organisms were obtained from 24-hour cultures. They were removed from their growth media and suspended in saline, and the saline suspensions rendered sterile by heating for several one-hour periods at 60° C.