[Diabetes mellitus with intractable bacterial infections].
Infections complicating diabetes mellitus are often severe and persist, becoming intractable. As the mechanism of the intractability, cell function involved in the defense against infection was evaluated. The function of peripheral blood neutrophils in diabetes mellitus was markedly decreased compared with the control group. In the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in diabetes mellitus, alveolar macrophages (AM) were increased, and especially, the appearance of foamy AM was characteristic. Among the functions of AM, chemotactic ability and bactericidal ability were significantly decreased, and the decreases were more marked in IDDM than in the NIDDM. The function of AM did not recover even after improvement in the blood glucose level. Thus, the effects of metabolic abnormalities in diabetes mellitus extended to the cellular level in the lungs.
Sato
A
A
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine.
Tamura
R
R
Shirai
T
T
D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000209:etiology*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016867:Immunocompromised Host; D016676:Macrophages, Alveolar / Q000276:immunology; D010587:Phagocytosis