Insulin administration may trigger pancreatic β-cell destruction in patients with type 2 diabetes

Insulin administration causes various types of immune response to insulin. However, there have been no reports that insulin administration triggers pancreatic β-cell destruction in diabetic patients. We evaluated three patients who had suffered from type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance for 5–30 years. After an episode of diabetic mononeuropathy or poor glycemic control, they started human insulin therapy. All the patients’ serum or urinary C-peptide levels were preserved before insulin therapy, whereas within a few months they rapidly declined to below detection limits. A high titer of insulin antibody was detected at or after the development of insulin deficiency. Shortly after the initiation of insulin therapy, two of the patients developed an insulin allergy. Autoantibodies to GAD65 or IA-2 were negative throughout the clinical course in two cases, but transiently positive in one case. In a histological examination of pancreas tissue obtained by a pancreatic biopsy in one case, mononuclear cell infiltration into the islets was observed. They all had a type 1 diabetes high-risk HLA class II haplotype in Japanese, and class I alleles of the insulin gene VNTR. The above findings suggest that insulin administration may have triggered pancreatic β-cell destruction in these patients.