IMMUNE RESPONSIVENESS IN A RAT MODEL FOR TYPE-II DIABETES (ZUCKER RAT, FA FA) - SUSCEPTIBILITY TO CANDIDA-ALBICANS INFECTION AND LEUKOCYTE FUNCTION/

There is a causal relationship between obesity-associated diabetes and an increased risk of infection, The ability of obese (fa/fa) Zucker r ats, a model for non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), to c lear Candida albicans from the circulation and tissues was compared to that of lean (Fa/fa, Fa/Fa) Zucker rat controls as a measure of immun e function, The ID50 necessary to establish tissue colonisation in lea n Zucker rats was 1.18 log(10) times greater than that determined for the obese Zucker rats, Nine days after intravenous (i.v.) injection of a yeast suspension, the organs of obese rats had a 10-fold greater ye ast/g organ burden than did lean rats, The kidney was determined to be the primary target organ for colonisation, Germ-tube formation by C. albicans occurred at a rate 1.5 times faster in serum from obese rats than in serum from lean rats, Peritoneal polymorphonuclear leucocytes, resident macrophages and thioglycollate-elicited macrophages from lea n Zucker rats displayed a significantly higher ability to kill ingeste d yeast cells than analogous cell populations from obese Zucker rats.