Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is a sub-epidermal autoimmune blistering disease associated with autoantibodies to the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ). Patients' autoantibodies induce dermal-epidermal separation when co-incubated with cryosections of human skin and leucocytes from healthy volunteers. IgG autoantibodies trigger complement and/or leucocyte activation resulting in specific pathology in se...

Aims/hypothesis We analysed the association between humoral autoreactivity to zinc transporter-8 (ZnT8) and the SLC30A8 rs13266634 polymorphism (Arg325Trp), which is located at the most distal loop in the ZnT8 protein. Methods Autoantibodies to ZnT8 were determined by RIA in 270 patients with type 1 diabetes using ZnT8 carboxy-terminal constructs (amino acids 268–369) carrying 325Trp(CW) and 32...

BACKGROUND Hypocretin peptides participate in the regulation of sleep-wake cycle while deficiency in hypocretin signaling and loss of hypocretin neurons are causative for narcolepsy-cataplexy. However, the mechanism responsible for alteration of the hypocretin system in narcolepsy-cataplexy and its relevance to other central hypersomnias remain unknown. Here we studied whether central hypersomn...

OBJECTIVE While it is known that there is progression to diabetes in <10 years in 70% of children with two or more islet autoantibodies, predictors of the progression to diabetes are only partially defined. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study has observed 8,503 children who were at increased genetic risk for autoimmune diabetes. In...

OBJECTIVE β-Cell autoantibodies are a feature of the preclinical phase of type 1 diabetes. Here, we asked how frequently they revert in a cohort of children at risk for type 1 diabetes and whether reversion has any effect on type 1 diabetes risk. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Children were up to 10 years of age and screened more than once for insulin autoantibody, GAD antibody, and insulinoma a...

BACKGROUND Antibody-mediated and cytotoxic T cell-mediated pathogenicity have been implicated as the autoimmune pathophysiologic mechanisms in Rasmussen's encephalitis. METHODS The authors investigated autoantibodies against the NMDA glutamate receptor (GluR) epsilon2 subunit and their epitopes in serum and CSF samples from 15 patients with chronic epilepsia partialis continua (EPC), 17 with ...

Autoantibodies against antigens expressed by insulin-producing β cells are circulating in both healthy individuals and patients at risk of developing Type 1 diabetes. Recent studies suggest that another set of antibodies (anti-idiotypic antibodies) exists in this antibody/antigen interacting network to regulate auto-reactive responses. Anti-idiotypic antibodies may block the antigen-binding sit...

OBJECTIVE We evaluated predictors of progression to diabetes in children with high-risk HLA genotypes and persistent islet autoantibodies. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young (DAISY) followed 2,542 children with autoantibodies measured to GAD, IA-2, and insulin. RESULTS Persistent islet autoantibodies developed in 169 subjects, and 55 of those progressed...

Idiotypic cross-reactions were evaluated in 60 polynucleotide-binding monoclonal lupus autoantibodies produced by human-human hybridomas that were derived from seven unrelated patients with SLE. Three antiidiotype reagents were prepared by immunization of rabbits or a mouse with monoclonal autoantibodies from two patients. Binding of the three reagents to their corresponding idiotypes was inhib...