Jump to content

Antipituitary Antibodies...


Recommended Posts

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produ...ArtikelNr=50015

 

This is just a small portion of the article. Unfortunetely you have to pay to read the entire article. I'll fish around to see if I can find anything else about this. I haven't seen anything about antipituitary anitbodies before, especially linking to Hashimotos which is an autoimmune disease. This is real interesting... Hmmm...

 

Antipituitary Antibodies in Patients with Lymphocytic Hypophysitis

Toshihiro Takao, Wakako Nanamiya, Reiko Matsumoto, Koichi Asaba, Tomoaki Okabayashi, Kozo Hashimoto

 

Second Department of Internal Medicine, Kochi Medical School, Nankoku, Japan

 

 

Address of Corresponding Author

 

Horm Res 2001;55:288-292 (DOI: 10.1159/000050015)

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Key Words

 

Antipituitary antibody

Hypopituitarism

Lymphocytic hypophysitis

Immunoblotting

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Abstract

 

Background: Lymphocytic hypophysitis is one of the causes of hypopituitarism, which is considered an autoimmune reaction in the anterior pituitary. Method: We examined antipituitary antibodies in patients with lymphocytic hypophysitis and related diseases by immunoblotting method. Results: Autoantibodies to a 22-kDa human pituitary cytosolic protein were identified in significantly higher frequencies in sera from patients with lymphocytic hypophysitis (11 of 15, 73.3%) and isolated ACTH deficiency (7 of 9, 77.8%) compared with Hashimoto thyroiditis, Basedow's disease and normal control subjects. Also, reactivity against a 49-kDa human pituitary cytosolic protein was seen in 6 of 15 patients (40%) with lymphocytic hypophysitis. N-terminal amino acid sequences of 22-kDa human and rat pituitary cytosolic protein were FPTIPLSVL and FPAMPLSSLFAN, respectively, suggesting that they are human and rat growth hormone, respectively. The pituitary dysfunction (at least one hormone dysfunction) was observed in 11 of 14 patients. Nine of them (82%) showed 22 kDa antibody but 2 of them (18%) did not. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that pituitary autoantibodies could be involved in the pathogenesis of lymphocytic hypophysitis and could be a positive marker for the disease.

 

Copyright ? 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel

 

UPDATED:

Another good article about anti-pit antibodies, GHD and autoimmune endocrine diesease-

 

http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/full/jcem;88/2/650 (click for full article)

 

The role of antipituitary antibodies (APA) in autoimmune pituitary diseases still needs to be clarified. The aim of this study was 2-fold: first, to investigate the presence of APA in adults with idiopathic or acquired GH deficiency (GHD) and in adults with autoimmune endocrine diseases; and second, to evaluate whether in autoimmune endocrine patients APA titer is correlated to the pituitary function and particularly to GH secretion. We studied 12 adults with isolated and apparently idiopathic GHD who were treated with recombinant GH in childhood (group 1a), 14 patients with adult GHD secondary to surgery for pituitary and parasellar tumors (group 1b), and 180 patients with organ-specific autoimmune diseases (group 2). APA were evaluated by indirect immunofluorescence. In all APA-positive patients and in 20 APA-negative patients of group 2, GH secretion was investigated by testing its response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia (insulin tolerance test) and, when impaired, also to arginine.

 

APA were found (at high titers) in 4 of 12 patients of group 1a (33.3%) but were absent in all patients in group 1b. APA were also found in 40 of 180 patients of group 2 (22.2%), 35 of them at low titers (group 2a) and 5 at high titers (group 2b). Twenty of the 140 autoimmune endocrine APA-negative patients studied (group 2c) and all APA-positive patients at low titers (group 2a) had normal pituitary function. Conversely, all APA-positive patients at high titers (groups 1a and 2b) had a severe isolated GHD. An inverse correlation between APA titers and GH peak serum response to insulin tolerance test in autoimmune endocrine patients was observed.

 

Our results suggest that APA, when detected at high titers, may be considered a good diagnostic tool to highlight the possible occurrence of GHD in adults with autoimmune endocrine diseases. Moreover, they may indicate an autoimmune pituitary involvement in adults with apparently idiopathic GHD, suggesting that the prevalence of autoimmune GHD is much higher than that so far considered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...