Immunoregulation of anti-islet cell antibody in insulin-dependent diabetes: failure to detect anti-idiotypic antibody following seroconversion.
A search was made for the presence of spontaneous auto-anti-idiotype in sera of three insulin-dependent diabetics when they converted from islet cell antibody positive to islet cell antibody negative states. Rabbit anti-idiotype specific for islet cell antibody was used as the positive control. Using an enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assay, binding of the rabbit anti-idiotype to idiotype-coated plates could not be inhibited by islet cell antibody negative sera. Using this same assay, there was no significant difference in the binding of islet cell antibody positive or negative sera to either idiotype-coated or normal IgG-coated plates. Binding of islet cell antibody to pancreatic sections could not be inhibited by islet cell antibody negative sera in an immunofluorescent assay. Network regulation by auto-anti-idiotype does not seem to play a role in the decline or absence of islet cell antibody in the early phases of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.