Pancreatic lesions induced in rabbits and guinea-pigs with pancreatic antigens

Rabbits and guinea-pigs were immunized with various pancreatic antigens in Freund's adjuvant. Rabbits received unfractionated bovine insulin and the "A" component and "single peak" insulin separated from it by gel-filtration. All produced antibodies capable of reacting with porcine insulin but none were found to have pancreatic lesions when killed up to 6 weeks after initial injection. Guinea-pigs immunized with bovine "A" component developed pancreatic peri-ductulitis which appeared most frequently (10/20) in animals killed 30 days after a single injection and less frequently in animals killed after 60 (4/10) and 90(1/10) days. Similar lesions were found in only a small proportion of control animals (2/23) or of guinea-pigs immunized with single peak bovine insulin (3/22). Guinea-pigs immunized with homogenates of homologous and heterologous islets of Langerhans developed signs of peri-ductulitis in a high proportion of animals killed up to about 60 days after first injection (18/26). None of these animals exhibited clearly defined signs of diabetes mellitus and the incidence of induced lesions could not be correlated with levels of circulating insulin-binding antibodies.