Immune complexes in diabetes insipidus syndrome of rabbits immunized with vasopressin.

Rabbits immunized with lysine-vasopressin bovine serum albumin conjugate showed the diabetes insipidus syndrome intermittently manifested by polyuria and polydipsia with various degrees of peaking from the eighth to fourteenth day post injection during boosters. The antibody-antidiuretic hormone immune complexes which may interfere with the action of the endogenous vasopressin on the kidney were found in the diabetes insipidus rabbits. However, the degree of the polyuria was not necessarily related to the quantities of the formed immune complexes, the titer, nor the affinity of the antiserum. It is suggested that the degree of the polyuria is related not only to the binding ability of the antiserum to the endogeneous vasopressin, but also to other factors.