Exploratory analysis of anti-insulin antibodies in diabetic dogs receiving recombinant human insulin

Abstract

Objectives: To quantify anti-insulin antibodies in diabetic dogs treated with recombinant human insulin and to determine if insulin dosage or duration of treatment differed between anti-insulin antibody-positive and -negative diabetic dogs. Materials and Methods: Descriptive preliminary study using serum from 24 client-owned diabetic dogs treated for a minimum of 2 weeks with recombinant human insulin, and 24 client-owned healthy control dogs without diabetes. Sera were analysed by radioimmunoassay for anti-insulin antibodies. The proportion of antibody positive dogs was compared between groups by Fisher's exact test. Results: Four diabetic (16.6%) and no control dogs were anti-insulin antibody positive. Clinical Significance: These results indicate that treatment with recombinant human insulin may induce anti-insulin antibodies in dogs, although this finding needs to be re-investigated in a larger study to investigate the impact of anti-insulin antibodies on glycaemic control.