Autoimmunity to anterior pituitary cells and the pathogenesis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
An immunofluorescence study using unfixed cryostat sections of human pituitary glands was carried out on sera from patients with type-Ia (juvenile-onset) diabetes (61 recent onset, 48 longstanding). 63 of their selected high-risk first-degree relatives and 117 patients with type-Ib ("polyendocrine") diabetes were tested for comparison. Healthy controls included 48 sera from laboratory staff and students. Pituitary-cell antibodies were found in none of the controls, in 2% of patients with longstanding diabetes, in 16.6% of patients with diabetes of recent onset, and in 36.6% of genetically predisposed relatives with islet-cell antibodies in their sera (of whom 7 became diabetic during a 3-year follow-up period, 4 of them reacting with pituitary cells for 1-3 years before the onset of diabetes). Thus pituitary antibodies tended to disappear after onset of symptoms. Many of the sera reacted with multiple anterior-pituitary cell types. These findings suggest a wider involvement of the endocrine-organ system in the pathogenesis of insulin-dependent diabetes and are in accordance with clinical observations showing excess growth in prepubertal boys at onset of diabetic symptoms and with the results of experiments on virus-induced diabetes in mice. The connection of these pituitary antibodies with autoimmune lymphocytic hypophysitis is at present unknown.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010375:Pedigree; D010903:Pituitary Gland, Anterior / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D012737:Sex Factors
D001323:Autoantibodies; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II