TITLE: Prevalent expression of the immunostimulatory MHC class I chainrelated molecule is counteracted by shedding in prostate cancer

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Jennifer D. Wu University of Washington, 325 9th Ave., Seattle, WA 98104, USA
Phone: (206) 341-5349; Fax: (206) 341-5302. E-mail: wuj@u.washington.edu

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/press/22206.pdf

Having an Affinity for Diabetes

Insulin autoantibodies (IAAs) are often the first antibodoies directed against self that are recognized in the natural history of childhood diabetes. Not all IAA-positive children, however, go on to develop additional autoantibodies against antigens from pancreas islet cells and, from there, progress to type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). In a standard immune response, antibody maturation through repeated exposure to antigen results in increased antibody affinity. Ezio Bonifacio and colleagues, from the Diabetes Research Institute in Germany, analyzed IAA affinity in IAA-positive samples from children of the BABYDIAB cohort to examine the relationship of antibody affinity to development of T1DM. Using a competitive radiobinding assay, the authors found that the presence of high-affinity IAAs in a sample correlated with the individual having HLA DRB1*04 and subsequently developing multiple islet autoantibodies and T1DM. In examining epitope specificity, they further found that high- and low-affinity IAAs were reactive with different insulin epitopes and that high-affinity IAAs were reactive with (pro)insulin, whi
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Contact: Laurie Goodman
press_releases@the-jci.org
212-342-4159
Journal of Clinical Investigation
16-Aug-2004