D-penicillamine-induced pancreatic islet autoantibody production is independent of the immunogenetic background: A lesson from patients with Wilson's disease

Arieh Kauschansky*, Moshe Frydman, Sara Assa, Oh Joong Kwon, Shoshana Israel, Daniel Lazard, Elliot Sprecher, Konstantin Bloch, Chaim Brautbar, Pnina Vardi

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

D-penicillamine (D-PA) was reported to induce various immunological abnormalities including production of autoantibodies to insulin. These abnormalities were mainly described in patients with primary immunological disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis. In order to clarify whether D-PA- induced immune disorders are restricted to patients genetically prone to develop autoimmune diseases or to a direct drug effect, we tested for the presence of various autoantibodies and for molecular HLA typing in 17 patients with Wilson's disease treated with this drug. In 2/17 patients, low- titer (10 JDFU) circulating islet cell autoantibodies (ICA) were detected, while another patient was positive for the presence of insulin autoantibodies. None of the sera tested showed reactivity for glutamic acid decarboxylase or ICA512. Five of twelve patients were positive for anti- single-stranded DNA autoantibody. Molecular HLA typing of the autoantibody- positive subjects showed that they carry HLA haplotypes not associated with insulin-dependent diabetes. The insulin response to intravenous glucose tolerance test in two patients with autoantibodies was found to be normal. A second blood testing of the autoantibody-positive patients 5 months following initial evaluation revealed conversion to negativity in all three. Our results suggest that D-PA-induced autoantibodies in patients with Wilson's disease are independent of the immunogenetic background characteristics of diabetes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)279-283
Number of pages5
JournalClinical Immunology and Immunopathology
Volume89
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1998

Keywords

  • D-penicillamine
  • Insulin autoantibodies
  • Islet cell autoantibodies
  • Wilson's disease

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