Anti-CCL3 autoantibodies are not markers of type 1 diabetes when measured by a commercial ELISA method

Excerpt

Autoantibodies are a hallmark feature of type 1 diabetes and have proved useful markers for disease prediction and classification [1]. New autoantibodies are of interest since they may strengthen disease relevance in autoantibody-positive individuals [2, 3]. Recently, autoantibodies against the inducible chemokine CCL3 were reported to be associated with type 1 diabetes [4], and commercial kits for the measurement of anti-CCL3 autoantibodies are now available. CCL3 is produced during inflammation and is suggested to be produced by beta cells under stress. We had the opportunity to evaluate this commercial kit and here report our findings. Sera from patients with new or recent onset of type 1 diabetes (n = 54; median age 10 years; IQR 7.5–13.5 years), controls (n = 40; median age 11.2 years; IQR 4.7–16.3 years), first-degree relatives of patients with type 1 diabetes (n = 33; median age 10.5 years; IQR 7.7–11.2 years) and participants with other autoimmune diseases (n = 17; median age 12.5 years; IQR 10.1–16.6 years) were tested with the Micromedic Technologies kit (MT-CCL3-IFU; Micromedic Technologies, Ramat Gan, Israel) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. All sera had been stored at −20°C prior to testing. One kit batch was used for all anti-CCL3 autoantibody measurements. The study participants gave informed consent, and the investigations were carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki as revised in 2000. …