Osmotic resistance of leukocytes in patients with onset of diabetes before twenty-five years.

Osmotic resistance of leukocytes has been studied with the Storti-Pederzini method in 30 young healthy subjects and in 30 diabetics of the juvenile insulin-dependent type with variable duration of the disease and variable degrees of metabolic control. Reduced osmotic resistance, above all in the polymorphonuclear cells, has been found in diabetics. This finding did not appear to correlate with the duration of diabetes or with blood glucose level. This reduced osmotic resistance of polymorphonuclear leukocytes of diabetic patients might contribute to the deficiency in leukocyte migration and phagocytosis observed by some authors in diabetics.