In human milk we previously found catalytic antibodies (abzymes) catalyzing hydrolysis of DNA, RNA, NMP, NDP, and NTP and also phosphorylation of proteins and lipids. In the present study we have analyzed nuclease activities of antibodies in blood of women during pregnancy and lactation. Blood of healthy male and female volunteers lacked catalytically active antibodies, whereas antibodies from blood of pregnant women hydrolyzed DNA and RNA and their relative activity varied over a wide range. Relative blood abzyme activities significantly increased after delivery and at the beginning of lactation. The highest abzyme activity was observed in blood of parturient women. Although the dynamics of changes in antibody DNase activity during pregnancy was rather individual for each woman, there was a common trend in the increase in antibody activity in the first and/or third trimester of the pregnancy. The DNase activity of IgG and IgM from blood of healthy pregnant women was 4-5 times less than that from pregnant women with pronounced autoimmune thyroiditis.

Analysis of clinical features of type I diabetes mellitus and of the status of health services using the chart of Diabcare, an All-European Program, demonstrated that the system of following up such patients is to be altered. The infrastructure of medicare is to be changed, schools are to be set up for training diabetics, diabetological centers organized, patients be provided for with means of automonitoring, and insulin supply be stable.

Patients with types I, II, and pancreatogenic diabetes mellitus were examined for the counts of T precursor cells using autorosette formation test in the presence of t-activin, an activator of T lymphocyte differentiation. The counts of T lymphocyte precursors in patients with type II and pancreatogenic diabetes were virtually the same as in normal subjects. Disorders of cellular immunity in type I diabetes mellitus were found to be associated with depletion of pre-T-lymphocytes. These changes were the most manifest in the decompensation phase (ketoacidosis state). The results may be useful in development of immunomodulating therapy for type I diabetes and in prediction of the disease development in subjects predisposed to it.

The problem of development of diabetic myocardiodystrophy is analyzed. Thirty-seven patients with type 1 diabetes running a grave course with various disease duration were examined. The major parameters of intracardiac hemodynamics were examined by echolocation; exercise tolerance was studied by bicycle ergometry. The data indicate the development of diastolic rigidity, reduced volume of leftventricular myocardium, and decreased stroke and minute output at the early stages of the disease. Bicycle ergometry showed reduced exercise tolerance. These changes were in direct proportion to disease duration, presence of microangiopathy, and compensation status. These parameters may appreciably improve in recovery of the disturbed metabolic processes with restoration of the age-specific norm in patients with not long disease standing. Hence, echolocation of the heart and bicycle ergometry may be regarded among the criteria of diabetes mellitus compensation.