Insulin autoantibodies, islet cell surface antibodies and the development of spontaneous diabetes in the BB/Edinburgh rat.
The presence of insulin autoantibodies (IAA) and islet cell surface antibodies (ICSA) was sought in two longitudinal studies, involving BB/Edinburgh rats of high (BB/E/H, n = 157) and low (BB/E/L, n = 61) susceptibility to diabetes development. Both studies were designed to correlate pancreatic morphology with cellular and humoral immunity. In Study I, groups of eight male and eight female non-diabetic rats of the BB/E/H line were killed at 15 day intervals from 30-105 days and plasma samples were obtained by cardiac puncture. In study II, 61 BB/E/H and 41 BB/E/L rats underwent pancreatic biopsy 1-3 times from 30 days of age until onset of diabetes or 150 days, plasma samples being taken from the tail vein at biopsy. Both studies revealed a higher prevalence for ICSA than IAA in BB/E rats. Whereas a highly significant association of ICSA with diabetes development was observed in study II (chi 2 = 8.30, P less than 0.005), IAA were associated with diabetes development only weakly (P less than 0.03, Mann-Witney U-rank test). No correlation between the presence of ICSA and IAA in individual rats was observed and IAA were not significantly associated with BB/E/H in preference to BB/E/L rats, although positive IAA values were significantly elevated in the former compared with the latter (P less than 0.01). These observations support the concept that IAA form part of a background of heightened autoimmunity against which frank diabetes develops in some animals.
Dean
B M
BM
Department of Immunology, Middlesex Hospital Medical School, London, UK.
Bone
A J
AJ
Varey
A M
AM
Walker
R
R
Baird
J D
JD
Cooke
A
A
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000276:immunology*; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D007328:Insulin / Q000276:immunology*; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000276:immunology*; D051381:Rats; D011913:Rats, Inbred BB
D001323:Autoantibodies; D007328:Insulin