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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med. Technol.
Sec. Diagnostic and Therapeutic Devices
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmedt.2024.1407409
This article is part of the Research Topic Targeting early-stage Diabetic Retinopathy and Age-related Macular Degeneration: Diagnosis and management. View all articles

Detection of natural autoimmunity to ghrelin in diabetes mellitus

Provisionally accepted
Rega H. Kasim Rega H. Kasim 1Thilo S. Chillon Thilo S. Chillon 2Anna M. Eleftheriadou Anna M. Eleftheriadou 2Eddy Rijntjes Eddy Rijntjes 2Waldemar B. Minich Waldemar B. Minich 2Stefan Zechmann Stefan Zechmann 3Lutz Schomburg Lutz Schomburg 2*
  • 1 Institute of Experimental Endocrinology, Charity University Medicine Berlin, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 2 Institute for Experimental Endocrinology, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 3 Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Ghrelin is an orexigenic peptide that becomes post-translationally modified. Natural autoantibodies to ghrelin (ghrelin-aAb) have been described in healthy subjects, in eating disorders and rheumatic diseases, with potential clinical relevance. Despite these important reports, the data base on the prevalence and physiological role is small and technical approaches for assessing ghrelin-aAb are few, encouraging respective research for improving knowledge on the potential endocrine significance.Methods: A novel immunoprecipitation assay was generated based on a fusion protein of human ghrelin with a reporter gene. Assay quality was verified with commercial antibodies. Assay characteristics and matrix effects were determined, including stability of natural ghrelin-aAb to freezing, signal linearity in dilution experiments, and comparison of different matrices. Three groups of serum samples were analyzed for ghrelin-aAb, comprising commercial sera from healthy subjects and patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus.Results: The newly generated ghrelin-aAb assay proved sensitive, robust and reliable over a broad concentration range. Results from serum and plasma differed slightly. The signals from serum remained stable towards freezing and thawing, and in dilution experiments. Applying a mathematical criterion for outliers (P75 + 1.5-times IQR), an average prevalence of 11-12% of positive samples was identified in the different human cohorts, with no significant sex-or disease-related difference.General significance: A novel diagnostic autoantibody assay detected ghrelin-aAb with a similar prevalence in diabetic patients and controls, suggesting that autoimmunity to ghrelin plays little role in diabetes mellitus, but may be of relevance in other diseases where ghrelin signaling is essential.

    Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Autoantibody, autoimmune disease, in vitro diagnostics, sexual dimorphism, Growth Hormone

    Received: 28 Apr 2024; Accepted: 28 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kasim, Chillon, Eleftheriadou, Rijntjes, Minich, Zechmann and Schomburg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lutz Schomburg, Institute for Experimental Endocrinology, Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

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