A multicenter study on HLA and autoimmunity in Japanese patients with early-onset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM): the JDS Study.

The Japan Diabetes Society (JDS) conducted a multicenter study on HLA and autoimmunity in Japanese patients with early-onset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). HLA, immunoglobulin heavy-chain complex (Gm), properdin factor B (BF), and glyoxalase of erythrocytes (GLO) were typed, and organ-specific autoantibodies including islet cell antibodies (ICA) were assayed in 159 IDDM patients and their relatives and in 258 healthy Japanese subjects. The HLA-DRw9 phenotype and HLA-Bw61/DRw9 haplotype were significantly increased among the patients with autoantibodies other than ICA, whereas the DR4 phenotype and Bw54/DR4 haplotype were significantly increased in those without the autoantibodies. The DR4 phenotype was significantly increased in the patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases. The relative risk of the HLA-DRw9/DR4 genotype was highest among all DR genotypes. The Gm phenotype of g and gft were significantly increased in the patients with the autoantibodies. The BF-F phenotype was significantly decreased in the patients either with or without the autoantibodies. There was no association of GLO types with IDDM. The prevalence of ICA among IDDM patients was decreased with duration of IDDM. No significant association was found between the prevalence of ICA and sex, age at onset, or HLA type. On the other hand, the prevalence of the autoantibodies was not significantly changed with duration of the disease, and was significantly higher in females than in males.