Identification of insulin autoantibodies of IgA isotype that preferentially target non-human insulin

Insulin autoantibodies (IAA) precede clinical type 1 diabetes in children. Immunization events leading to IAA are unknown. The aim of this study was to determine whether some IAA result from mucosal immunization. IgA-IAA and binding of IAA to non-human insulin were examined in selected high and low affinity IAA-positive samples and in first IAA-positive samples from children aged < 2 years. High affinity IAA (> 10⁹L/mol) bound strongly to human insulin and poorly to chicken insulin. In contrast, 12/13 lower affinity IAA were chicken insulin-reactive, binding equally to human and chicken insulin (n = 4), or preferentially binding chicken insulin (n = 8). IgA-IAA were found in association with chicken insulin-reactive IAA, and included cases where IgA-IAA predominated over IgG-IAA. Among 20 IAA-positive children aged < 2 years, one had early IgA-chicken insulin-reactive IAA that were replaced by high affinity IgG-IAA. The findings suggest that some IAA can result from immunization against molecules other than human insulin at mucosal sites.