Objective: The pathogenesis of autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) and fulminant type 1 diabetes remains unclear, although it is known that immune-mediated processes severely compromise the endocrine and exocrine functions in both diseases.
Research design and methods: We have screened a lambdaTriplEx2 human pancreas cDNA library with serum from a patient with AIP and obtained positive clones. Sequence analysis revealed that 7 of 10 clones were identical to human amylase alpha-2A. Using a recombinant COOH-terminal amylase alpha-2A protein, we developed an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay system to detect autoantibodies against human amylase alpha-2A.
Results: All 15 serum samples from patients with AIP recognized the recombinant protein, whereas sera from 25 patients with chronic alcoholic pancreatitis and sera from 25 patients with a pancreas tumor did not. Interestingly, 88% (15/17) of patients with fulminant type 1 diabetes were positive for an autoantibody against amylase alpha-2A. These antibodies were detected in 21% of patients with acute-onset type 1 diabetes (9 of 42) and 6% of type 2 diabetic patients (4 of 67).
Conclusions: These results suggest that an autoantibody against amylase alpha-2A is a novel diagnostic marker for both AIP and fulminant type 1 diabetes and that, clinically and immunologically, AIP and fulminant type 1 diabetes are closely related.