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

Abstract

ObjectivesTo 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 MethodsDescriptive 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.ResultsFour diabetic (16.6%) and no control dogs were anti‐insulin antibody positive.Clinical SignificanceThese 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.