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Islet cell antibodies (ICAs) were assayed in 316 patients with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD; 190 with Graves' disease, 126 with Hashimoto's thyroiditis), 53 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), and 144 healthy control subjects. ICAs were measured by an immunohistochemical method with peroxidase-labeled protein A and human pancreatic tissues. The prevalence of ICAs in patients with AITD was 7.6% (24 of 316), whereas the prevalence in control subjects was 0.7% (1 of 144). Among 24 ICA+ patients, 20 (83%) had IDDM. In these 20 patients, the duration of diabetes from clinical onset was 5.4 +/- 5.1 yr. ICAs in patients with IDDM alone were positive in 90.9% at 1 yr and 7.7% at 5 yr after the onset of diabetes. These data have shown that most ICA+ patients with AITD have IDDM and that the prevalence of ICAs in patients with AITD in Japanese is as high as that found among whites, whereas the incidence of IDDM in Japanese is approximately one-thirtieth or one-fiftieth of that in whites.

Islet cell antibodies are usually detected in the sera of almost all Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients within several months after onset of the disease. The antibodies then disappeared quite early during the course of the disease. The present study was undertaken to detect islet cell antibody-producing clones in peripheral blood lymphocytes of Type 1 diabetic patients whose islet cell antibodies could not be detected in sera. Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphocytes were employed to enhance the production of antibodies and to detect the clones from peripheral blood lymphocytes. Peripheral blood lymphocytes were obtained from 40 islet cell antibody-negative Type 1 diabetic patients, 10 antibody-positive Type 1 diabetic patients, 30 Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients and 40 normal control subjects. Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphocytes were cultured for 4 weeks and the culture supernatants were used for assay of islet cell antibodies. Islet cell antibody assays were performed by immunohistochemical methods using peroxidase-labelled protein A for IgG antibodies, peroxidase-labelled anti-human IgM antibodies for IgM antibodies and fresh frozen human pancreatic tissue. IgG-islet cell antibodies were detected in 26 islet cell antibody-negative patients (65%), eight antibody-positive patients (80%) and one Type 2 diabetic patient (3%) in the culture supernatants. Islet cell antibodies in the supernatants could not be detected in any of the control subjects. IgM-islet cell antibodies could not be detected in any of the patients or control subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)