Association of rapid-onset type 1 diabetes and clinical acute pancreatitis positive for autoantibodies to the exocrine pancreas

Autoimmune Polyglandular Syndrome Type 3 Complicated with IgG4-related Disease

A 52-year-old Japanese woman developed type 1 diabetes mellitus (type 1 DM) at 41 years old. She became complicated with Hashimoto's disease and showed swelling of both submandibular glands, which was diagnosed as IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD). This is a rare case of a Japanese patient with autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type 3A (APS-3A) coexisting with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and type 1 DM complicated by IgG4-RD. Bilateral submandibular gland resection was successfully performed without steroid therapy. We discuss the possibility that the immunological pathogenic mechanisms of APS-3A and IgG4-RD are related.

A rare case of fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus accompanied by both acute pancreatitis and myocarditis - case report

BACKGROUND

Fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus (FT1D) is a newly established subtype of type 1 diabetes. Its etiology has not been fully elucidated. Several cases with FT1D have exhibited pancreatitis or myocarditis.

CASE PRESENTATION

We report a 31-year-old Japanese woman who showed upper abdominal pain and was admitted to a local hospital. She was initially diagnosed with acute pancreatitis based on serum amylase elevation and swelling of the pancreas on computed tomography. Four days after admission, she developed diabetic ketoacidosis and was transferred to our hospital. Her symptoms and laboratory findings met the FT1D criteria. On the 3rd hospital day, electrocardiography (ECG) showed ST-segment elevation, and serum cardiac enzymes were markedly elevated. Because she exhibited late gadolinium enhancement in the apical wall on contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, she was diagnosed as acute myocarditis. Abnormal ECG findings and elevations of biomarkers associated with myocarditis showed improvement on the next day.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first case of FT1D accompanied by both pancreatitis and myocarditis and suggests that the pathophysiology of FT1D is related to the common etiology of acute pancreatitis and myocarditis.

Painless Thyroiditis and Fulminant Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in a Patient Treated with an Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor, Nivolumab

The programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) pathway is a novel therapeutic target in immune checkpoint therapy for cancer. Nivolumab, an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, blocks PD-1 and can restore anti-cancer immune responses by disrupting the signal that inhibits T-cell activation. Nivolumab may induce endocrine-related adverse events, including hypophysitis, autoimmune thyroiditis, and type 1 diabetes mellitus. Here we report a 68-year-old female patient with advanced renal cell carcinoma who was treated with nivolumab. She had positive anti-thyroglobulin antibodies and anti-thyroid peroxidase antibodies with slightly elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (9.048 μU/mL), and was diagnosed as chronic thyroiditis with subclinical hypothyroidism before nivolumab therapy. She developed painless thyroiditis after the first cycle of the therapy (Day 14). At the 7th cycle of nivolumab therapy (Day 98), hyperglycemia (473 mg/dL) was noted, whereas glycated hemoglobin level was 6.9%. Islet-related autoantibodies were all negative. The glucagon tolerance test showed complete depletion of insulin. Human leukocyte antigen typing showed haplotype DRB1*09:01-DQB1*03:03, which was reported to be closely associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Japan. Fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus was diagnosed, and she was immediately treated with multiple daily injections of insulin. Fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterized by rapid-onset diabetic ketoacidosis, and negative islet-related autoantibodies, and was proposed as a novel subtype of non-autoimmune diabetes. Preceding painless thyroiditis with positive thyroid autoantibodies observed in the present case, however, raises the possibility that autoimmune mechanisms are involved in the pathogenesis of nivolumab-induced fulminant type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Aetiology of type 1 diabetes: Physiological growth in children affects disease progression

The prevailing view is that type 1 diabetes (T1D) develops as a consequence of a severe decline in β-cell mass resulting from T-cell-mediated autoimmunity; however, progression from islet autoantibody seroconversion to overt diabetes and finally to total loss of C-peptide production occurs in most affected individuals only slowly over many years or even decades. This slow disease progression should be viewed in relation to the total β-cell mass of only 0.2 to 1.5 g in adults without diabetes. Focal lesions of acute pancreatitis with accumulation of leukocytes, often located around the ducts, are frequently observed in people with recent-onset T1D, and most patients display extensive periductal fibrosis, the end stage of inflammation. An injurious inflammatory adverse event, occurring within the periductal area, may have negative implications for islet neogenesis, dependent on stem cells residing within or adjacent to the ductal epithelium. This could in part prevent the 30-fold increase in β-cell mass that would normally occur during the first 20 years of life. This increase occurs in order to maintain glucose metabolism during the physiological increases in insulin production that are required to balance the 20-fold increase in body weight during childhood and increased insulin resistance during puberty. Failure to expand β-cell mass during childhood would lead to clinically overt T1D and could help to explain the apparently more aggressive form of T1D occurring in growing children when compared with that observed in affected adults.

Association of newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes and autoimmune pancreatitis

Autoimmune pancreatitis is a new nosological entity in which a lymphocytic infiltration of the exocrine pancreas is involved. The concomitant onset of autoimmune pancreatitis and type 1 diabetes has been recently described suggesting a unique immune disturbance that compromises the pancreatic endocrine and exocrine functions. We report a case of type1 diabetes onset associated with an autoimmune pancreatitis in a young patient who seemed to present a type 2 autoimmune polyglandular syndrome. This rare association offers the opportunity to better understand pancreatic autoimmune disorders in type 1 diabetes.

LEARNING POINTS

The case makes it possible to understand the possibility of a simultaneous disturbance of the endocrine and exocrine function of the same organ by one autoimmune process.The diagnosis of type 1 diabetes should make practitioner seek other autoimmune diseases. It is recommended to screen for autoimmune thyroiditis and celiac diseases. We draw attention to consider the autoimmune origin of a pancreatitis associated to type1 diabetes.Autoimmune pancreatitis is a novel rare entity that should be known as it is part of the IgG4-related disease spectrum.

Revisiting the notion of type 1 diabetes being a T-cell-mediated autoimmune disease

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) research is at present in a critical period of development and during the past few years several large phase III studies targeting T-cell autoimmunity in recent-onset patients with T1D failed to reach the primary endpoint.

RECENT FINDINGS

Cause and pathogenesis of T1D remain largely unknown. In humans, insulitis is discrete, affects few islets and is present only in about one-third of patients with recent-onset T1D. The rapid increase in incidence of T1D argues against a decisive role for genetic factors and instead for the hypothesis that infectious agents, possibly entering the pancreas via the ductal compartment, are involved in disease pathogenesis. Repeated episodes of bacteria or virus-induced innate inflammations affecting only certain lobes of the pancreas fit well with the reported heterogeneity of the disease within the pancreas as well as with the slow progression over many years.

SUMMARY

In humans there is limited support for T1D being primarily an autoimmune disease; instead available findings support the view that T1D can be regarded as an innate inflammatory disease affecting the entire pancreas, but with its main clinical manifestations emanating from the loss of the insulin-producing cells.

On the etiology of type 1 diabetes: a new animal model signifying a decisive role for bacteria eliciting an adverse innate immunity response

The cause of type 1 diabetes (T1D) remains unknown; however, a decisive role for environmental factors is recognized. The increased incidence of T1D during the last decades, as well as regional differences, is paralleled by differences in the intestinal bacterial flora. A new animal model was established to test the hypothesis that bacteria entering the pancreatic ductal system could trigger β-cell destruction and to provide new insights to the immunopathology of the disease. Obtained findings were compared with those present in two patients dying at onset of T1D. Different bacterial species, present in the human duodenum, instilled into the ductal system of the pancreas in healthy rats rapidly induced cellular infiltration, consisting of mainly neutrophil polymorphonuclear cells and monocytes/macrophages, centered around the pancreatic ducts. Also, the islets of Langerhans attracted polymorphonuclear cells, possibly via release of IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemotactic protein 1. Small bleedings or large dilatations of the capillaries were frequently found within the islets, and several β-cells had severe hydropic degeneration (ie, swollen cytoplasm) but with preserved nuclei. A novel rat model for the initial events in T1D is presented, revealing marked similarities with the morphologic findings obtained in patients dying at onset of T1D and signifying a decisive role for bacteria in eliciting an adverse innate immunity response. The present findings support the hypothesis that T1D is an organ-specific inflammatory disease.

Identification of an inflammation-inducible serum protein recognized by anti-disialic acid antibodies as carbonic anhydrase II

Acute-phase proteins are an important marker of inflammation and sometimes have a role in the general defense response towards tissue injury. In the present study, we identified a 32-kDa protein that was immunoreactive with monoclonal antibody 2-4B (mAb.2-4B), which is specific to di/oligoNeu5Gc structures, and that behaved as an acute-phase protein following stimulation with either turpentine oil or lipopolysaccharides. The 32-kDa protein was identified as carbonic anhydrase II (CA-II), based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry analyses of the purified protein. Mouse and human CA-II was immunoreactive and immunoprecipitated with mAb.2-4B, but contained no sialic acid. In addition to mAb.2-4B, the mAb. S2-566 an antibody specific for diNeu5Ac-containing glycans, recognized the CA-II, whereas an anti-oligo/polysialic acid antibody did not. These results indicate that a part of the CA-II protein structure mimics the disialic acid structure recognized by the monoclonal antibodies. This is the first report that CA-II circulates in the serum following inflammation.

High prevalence of autoantibodies against carbonic anhydrase II and lactoferrin in type 1 diabetes: concept of autoimmune exocrinopathy and endocrinopathy of the pancreas

INTRODUCTION

Dysfunction of the exocrine as well as the endocrine pancreas has been reported in type 1 diabetes. Lymphocytic infiltration of the exocrine pancreas is observed in approximately half of Japanese type 1 diabetic patients.

AIMS

To investigate the involvement of autoimmunity against the exocrine pancreas in type 1 diabetes.

METHODOLOGY

We examined autoantibodies against human carbonic anhydrase II (ACA) and lactoferrin (ALF), antigens in the pancreatic duct cells and the pancreatic acinus, respectively, in 43 type 1 diabetic patients and 20 type 2 diabetic patients using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method.

RESULTS

Of 43 type 1 diabetic patients, ACA was detected in 28 patients (65%) and ALF was detected in 29 patients (67%). One or both of the antibodies were detected in 33 type 1 diabetic patients (77%). In contrast, neither ACA nor ALF were detected in type 2 diabetic patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The high prevalence of both ACA and ALF strongly suggests the involvement of autoimmunity against the exocrine pancreas as well as the endocrine pancreas in some type 1 diabetic patients. We propose that these conditions be referred to as autoimmune exocrinopathy and endocrinopathy of the pancreas.