Autoantibodies to IA-2 in IDDM: location of major antigenic determinants.

Thirty-three IDDM sera that immunoprecipitated full-length IA-2 were tested for reactivity with different fragments of the IA-2 molecule. The fragments were prepared by PCR amplification of IA-2 cDNA and by expression in a rabbit reticulocyte transcription/translation system. Whereas all 33 sera reacted with the intracellular domain (amino acid 604 to 979), none of the sera reacted with the extracellular domain of IA-2 (amino acid 31 to 577). Analysis of the reactivity of IDDM sera with the different regions of the intracellular domain showed that 94% (31 of the 33) reacted with the COOH-terminus (amino acid 771 to 979), 40% reacted with the NH2-terminus (amino acid 604 to 776), and 40% reacted with the middle portion (amino acid 692 to 875). Of the 31 sera that reacted with the COOH-terminus, 14 of these reacted only with the COOH-terminus and with no other region. Of the 13 sera that reacted with the NH2-terminus, only one reacted exclusively with the NH2-terminus. Treatments of the different domains of IA-2 with trypsin showed that only the COOH-terminus was resistant to trypsin, arguing that it is from this region of the IA-2 molecule that the 40-kDa tryptic fragment from insulinoma cells is derived. From these experiments, it is concluded that the major antigenic determinant of IA-2 is located at the COOH-terminus and that minor antigenic determinants are located at the NH2-terminus and middle portion of the intracellular domain.