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Anterior pituitary autoantibodies in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: methodological problems and clinical correlations

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Abstract

Background

Anti-pituitary antibodies (APA) were described in patients with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) but their prevalence and relevance remain controversial.

Materials and methods

We evaluated the APA prevalence in Sardinian sera from 100 T1D patients, 70 Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) patients and 62 healthy controls, using indirect immunofluorescence on bovine pituitary sections. To compare two different substrates, we tested using bovine sections, further T1D patient sera (n = 11, from Pisa) previously analysed for APA on monkey sections, while some T1D Sardinian patient sera (n = 22) were tested on monkey sections. According to preliminary experiments, positivity were considered ≥1:200 and ≥1:20 for bovine and monkey substrates, respectively.

Results and discussion

Using bovine sections, APA were detected in 7/100 Sardinian T1D patients (at 1:200 titer) and in none of the other Sardinian sera tested. When the T1D sera from Pisa were tested on bovine and the T1D Sardinian sera were tested on monkey, none of these sera showed corresponding positivity for APA. Pituitary hormone dysfunctions were not found in the 7 APA-positive Sardinian T1D patients. The present study shows that the presence of APA at low-titer is highly related to T1D but not associated with any pituitary dysfunction while the animal species used as substrate appears crucial.

Conclusion

Further studies are needed to ascertain whether APA detected by different animal species may have different pathological relevance in T1D and/or whether APA in the long run may predict future anterior pituitary dysfunction.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by grants from University of Cagliari to SM and from Italian MIUR-PRIN (#2002067915_002 to GLF, #2002067915_001 to SM).

Conflict of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Endocrinology and Diabetes Unit, Department of Medical Sciences and Azienda, Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Cagliari, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    C. Pisanu, E. Cossu, M. G. Baroni, F. Pigliaru & S. Mariotti

  2. NEF-Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, 09042, Monserrato, Italy

    C. Cocco

  3. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome (Sapienza), Rome, Italy

    M. G. Baroni

  4. Endocrinology Unit, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    L. Manetti, I. Lupi & E. Martino

Authors
  1. C. Pisanu
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  2. C. Cocco
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  3. E. Cossu
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  4. M. G. Baroni
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  5. F. Pigliaru
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  6. L. Manetti
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  7. I. Lupi
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  8. E. Martino
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  9. S. Mariotti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Cocco.

Additional information

C. Pisanu and C. Cocco contributed equally to this paper.

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Pisanu, C., Cocco, C., Cossu, E. et al. Anterior pituitary autoantibodies in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus: methodological problems and clinical correlations. J Endocrinol Invest 37, 973–978 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-014-0135-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-014-0135-0

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