Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is not associated with type-2 diabetes mellitus.
BACKGROUND
The role of pathogenic mycobacteria in diabetes has been a focus of speculation since a decade without any meaningful insights into the mechanism of diabetes causation vis a vis mycobacterial factors. Two of our studies based on PCR identification of mycobacterial DNA and detection of antibodies specific to the recombinant antigens and whole cell lysates of the Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) shown a clear association of MAP with the presence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM).


METHODS
In this study, we sought to investigate if or not type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients harbour humoral responses to MAP. Using three different MAP antigen preparations, humoral antibody profiles were estimated for 57 T2DM patients and 57 healthy controls. Statistical analysis was performed with the Chi-square test with Yates' corrections.


RESULTS
We observed insignificant levels of humoral antibodies against recombinant heparin binding haemagglutinin (HbHA), glycosyl transferase (Gsd) and MAP whole cell lysate in the blood of subjects with T2DM as compared to healthy controls.


CONCLUSIONS
We found no obvious association of MAP with the incidence of T2DM in Sardinian patients.
Rosu
Valentina
V
Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sezione di Microbiologia clinica e sperimentale, viale San Pietro 43 b 07100 Sassari, Italy. v.rosu@email.it
Ahmed
Niyaz
N
Paccagnini
Daniela
D
Pacifico
Adolfo
A
Zanetti
Stefania
S
Sechi
Leonardo A
LA
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D037102:Lectins / Q000097:blood; D016927:Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010283:Paratuberculosis / Q000150:complications
D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D037102:Lectins; C104578:heparin-binding hemagglutinin