Relationship between anti-insulin antibodies and albuminuria or proteinuria in human insulin-treated type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

In order to examine the relationship between anti-insulin antibodies (AIA) caused by extrinsic human insulin and albuminuria or proteinuria, 53 human insulin-treated type 2 diabetics were divided into two groups: (AIA(+) group) 27 patients with a titer of AIA greater than 7.6% and (AIA(-) group) 26 patients with a titer of AIA less than 7.5%. Although no significant difference was found between the two groups for age, gender, body mass index, duration of diabetes, duration of insulin treatment, blood pressure, serum creatinine, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), daily dose of insulin, daily insulin injection times, or treatment of hypertension, the AIA(+) group had a significantly higher urinary albumin to creatinine ratio and urinary protein to creatinine ratio than the AIA(-) group (p<0.05). It is suggested that AIA in type 1 diabetics might be insulin autoantibodies, which is not the case with type 2 diabetics. To our knowledge this is the first study demonstrating the relationship between AIA induced not by porcine or bovine insulin, but by human insulin and albuminuria or proteinuria in type 2 diabetics.