Rodent islet cell antigens recognized by antibodies in sera from diabetic patients

Rat islets, rat insulinoma cells and islets from three different mouse strains were labelled with 35S-cysteine and/or 35S-methionine. Detergent lysates of the cells were subjected to immunoprecipitation with sera from 5 newly diagnosed diabetic children and 5 control sera. The immunoprecipitates were analysed by sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis followed by autoradiography. One of the sera immunoprecipitated a protein of Mr 64K from lysates of rat islets, rat insulinoma cells, A. TH and NMRI but not CBA/H mouse islets. This protein was not consistently immunoprecipitated by the other diabetic sera, however, it was never found with control sera nor was it detected in rodent lymphocytes. Some proteins of lower molecular weight (59K, 57K, 40K, 29K) were specifically immunoprecipitated by one or more diabetic sera from some of the rodent islet cell preparations. It is concluded that rodent islet cells contain a protein of Mr 64K which may be antigenically related to a 64K protein previously detected in immunoprecipitates of human islet cells with the same diabetic sera. The variable results with rat and mouse islet cell material suggest that the level of cross-reactivity is low. Further studies are needed to clarify whether the lower molecular components detected in some immunoprecipitates represent other antigenic determinants or degradation products of the 64K protein.