No evidence of pancreatic autoimmunity among patients with multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Although multiple sclerosis (MS) usually appears isolated from other autoimmune disorders, an overlap with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been described in Sardinia, where T1DM-associated haplotype HLA-B18-DR3-DQ2 contributes to MS risk. To determine whether in our population MS patients show signs of pancreatic autoimmunity and share this haplotype, sera from 49 MS patients were tested for GAD, IA2, and CPH autoantibodies, and MICA exon 5 polymorphism was genotyped in 30 patients. Pancreatic autoimmune markers were not present among MS patients, nor was any MICA allele associated with MS. Overall, there is no evidence supporting a T1DM/MS overlap in our population.