No association between anti-bovine serum albumin antibodies and islet cell reactive antibodies in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic patients.
Serological findings have suggested that antibodies (Ab) to bovine serum albumin (BSA-Ab) are associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus. The aim of our study was to evaluate a competitive fluid-phase radioimmunoassay for detecting BSA-Ab using different incubation times and to study a possible association of these BSA-antibodies with autoantibodies (AAb) frequently detected in type 1 diabetic patients. For the overnight incubation time, there was an enormous overlap in the [125I]BSA binding by serum samples between 52 newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic patients (mean [125I]BSA binding 23.6 +/- 17.4%) and 54 healthy blood donors (mean [125I]BSA binding 10.2 +/- 15.7%). By an incubation time of only 3 min the BSA-antibody prevalence was found to be 15.4% (8/52) for type 1 diabetic patients and 3.7% (2/54) for control subjects. However, there was no association between BSA-Ab and type 1 diabetes-associated antibodies as cytoplasmic islet cell antibodies (ICA), or glutamate decarboxylase autoantibodies. Our results confirm that (i) BSA-Ab occur more frequently in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic patients compared with a healthy control group and (ii) that the BSA-Ab detected by the fluid-phase radioimmunoassay with an incubation time of 3 min are more disease-associated than the [125I]BSA binding after an overnight incubation. The competitive BSA-Ab fluid-phase radioimmunoassay described is a simple and rapid method to detect antibodies specifically reactive with BSA. It is suggested that the humoral immune reactivity to BSA in type 1 diabetic patients probably reflects an unspecific defect of the immune system and gives no additionally diagnostic value about the type 1 diabetes.
Lühder
F
F
Institute of Diabetes Gerhardt Katsch, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University of Greifswald, Karlsburg, Germany.
Schlosser
M
M
Michaelis
D
D
Ziegler
B
B
Kohnert
K D
KD
Ziegler
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine / Q000276:immunology*
D001323:Autoantibodies; C024211:islet cell antibody; D012710:Serum Albumin, Bovine; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase