We hope 19:54, 15 July 2006 (UTC) Every abstract I've read re: resistance and antibodies shows that most people using GE insulin have some amount of antibodies to it in their bodies, but it causes no real dilemmas for the majority of them. Those using any of the analog insulins also produce antibodies to them--have allergy refs & stats on each of them. The refs obviously illustrate "worst case" senarios, but they are proof it does happen--neither GE nor any analog insulin is without the capability to produce antibodies in people or other creatures. Have refs and will be getting them out & onto wiki. I've not seen any EMEA or FDA paperwork for any of them which did not assess & report the antibody findings in a clinical trial stage.
Antibodies that are not problematic to the point where a large percentage of the insulin is destroyed by them, are helpful to all in extending duration. Will be posting a ref on wiki where Bovine Ultralente was compared to Lantus for duration in humans. Can say I know people who can honestly go with 1 daily injection of Bovine Lente for basal--this is the "power" of antibodies when they don't either destroy the insulin or provoke allergic-type reactions in the user. Before GE insulin, all people were using beef, and in the 1970's the option of pork insulin came along. People had antibodies to them, but most had no real problems with them. With GE, people form less antibodies to it--this changed the way the insulin worked for them (shorter onset & duration than beef or pork) and the result was many people having hypoglycemia problems.
I've lived the other side of the antibody "coin"--where one amino acid's difference was one too many and made the insulin like injecting water. Have also seen them create problems when the species was a perfect match, but they were created against the protamine in the insulin's suspension. Know what it is like when this happens, and also what it's like when you have the insulin that's right for your diabetic pet.
Quite a bit of the material is human-based, but I think it can serve to illustrate what true antibody-mediated resistance is about. It was once considered rare in dogs; have abstracts which indicate it is not as rare as once believed. Think we can also show how they affect how an insulin performs for an individual who does not have official insulin resistance also.
Kathy