Spontaneous diabetes mellitus: reversal and prevention in the BB/W rat with antiserum to rat lymphocytes.

Injections of rabbit antiserum to rat lymphocytes reversed hyperglycemia in 36 percent of spontaneously diabetic rats (Bio Breeding/Worcester) and prevented diabetes in susceptible nondiabetic controls. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that cell-mediated autoimmunity plays a role in the pathogenesis of diabetes in this animal model that mimics many morpholigic and physiologic characteristics of human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.