Cytotoxic autoantibodies to beta cells in the serum of patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

We studied serum from 36 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) for the capacity to lyse beta cells. Immunofluorescence revealed an islet-cell cytoplasmic antibody (ICA) in 20 patients with IDDM and an islet-cell-surface antibody (ICSA) in 23. Neither ICA nor ICSA was found in any of 21 normal controls or 15 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes. In the presence of complement. ICSA-positive serum caused significant lysis as measured by release of 51Cr (50.1 +/- 8.8 per cent) from cultured rat islet cells, but ICSA-negative serum did not (17.7 +/- 7.3 per cent) (P < 0.001). Proof that ICSA-positive serum was lytic for beta cells was obtained by a double-fluorescence technique that identified lysed cells by their capacity to take up ethidium bromide and beta cells by their staining with fluorescein-conjugated antibody to insulin. These findings suggest that cytotoxic ICSA contributes to the pathogenesis of IDDM, but the mere presence of ICSA does not appear to be sufficient to produce diabetes; family studies showed that one fourth of the serum samples from nondiabetic first-degree relatives of diabetic probands were ICSA-positive and cytotoxic for beta cells.