Insulin stimulated phagocytic ability and humoral immunologic response in mice.

Female CBA mice, six months old, have been used. Crystalline insulin (Pliva, Zagreb) was injected s.c, 0,25, 0,5, 1 or 1,5 I.U./mouse/day for 10 days. Since the alterations of the immunological functions after various doses of insulin were not essentialy different, we shall present only the data obtained after treatment with 1 I.U. These doses did not cause any mortality from hypoglycemia. The immunological response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) was determined by counting the cells forming haemolytic antibodies (PFC) in the spleen (Jerne, Nordin and Henry 1963). For determination of in vitro phagocytic activity, spleen cells were mixed with fresh suspensions of Escherichia coli K-12 bacteria in the ratio 1:20 (Hrsak and Marotti 1974). For determination of in vivo phagocytosis, SRBC were labeled with s l Cr immediately before use and 5 x 10 of labeled SRBC were injected i.p. (Hrsak and Marotti 1974).