Epidemiology and Immunogenetic Background of Islet Cell Antibody–Positive Nondiabetic Schoolchildren: Ulm-Frankfurt Population Study

Bermhard O Boehm; Burkhard Manfras; Jochen Seißler; Karl Schöffling; Michael Glück; Gerhard Holzberger; Siegried Seidl; Peter Kühnl; Massimo Trucco; Werner A Scherbaum

doi:10.2337/diab.40.11.1435

Original Articles

Epidemiology and Immunogenetic Background of Islet Cell Antibody–Positive Nondiabetic Schoolchildren: Ulm-Frankfurt Population Study

Bermhard O Boehm,
Burkhard Manfras,
Jochen Seißler,
Karl Schöffling,
Michael Glück,
Gerhard Holzberger,
Siegried Seidl,
Peter Kühnl,
Massimo Trucco and
Werner A Scherbaum

University Hospital of Frankfurt Medical School, Department of General Medicine, Endocrinology Section, and the Institute of Immunohematology Frankfurt; the University Hospital of Ulm Medical School, Department of General Medicine, Ulm; the University Hospital of Hamburg Medical School, Department of Immunohematology Hamburg, Germany; and the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Bemhard O. Boehm, MD, University Hospitalof Frankfurt Medical School, Department of General Medicine, Laboratory of Molecular Immunology, 7 Theodor-Stern-Kai, W-6000 Frankfurt 70, Germany.

Diabetes 1991 Nov; 40(11): 1435-1439. https://doi.org/10.2337/diab.40.11.1435

Abstract

Islet cell antibodies (ICAs) were determined in a large cohort of white nondiabetic schoolchildren (n = 4287) from a homogenous population in southern Germany. The prevalence of ICA levels ≥5 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDF) U was 1.05% (95% confidence interval 0.8–1.4%). Analysis of HLA-DRβ and -DQβ alleles revealed that the specificities found to be increased in insulin-dependent (type I) diabetic subjects with the same ethnic background were also associated with ICA positivity in the nondiabetic schoolchildren. HLA-DR3 (P < 0.01) and -DR4 (P < 0.01) phenotypes and absence of Asp residue (P < 0.01) at codon 57 of the HLA-DQ β-chain were significantly increased in ICA⁺ compared with control subjects. High levels of ICAs, which were categorized as either ≥17 or ≥30 JDF U, were found to be associated with amino acids other than Asp at position 57 of the HLA-DQ β-chain. No association of ICA level was found for HLA-DR phenotypes.