Screening of endocrine organ-specific humoral autoimmunity in 47,XXY Klinefelter's syndrome reveals a significant increase in diabetes-specific immunoreactivity in comparison with healthy control men.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of humoral endocrine organ-specific autoimmunity in 47,XXY Klinefelter's syndrome (KS) by investigating the autoantibody profile specific to type 1 diabetes (T1DM), Addison's disease (AD), Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT), and autoimmune chronic atrophic gastritis (AG). Sixty-one adult Caucasian 47,XXY KS patients were tested for autoantibodies specific to T1DM (Insulin Abs, GAD Abs, IA-2 Abs, Znt8 Abs), HT (TPO Abs), AD (21-OH Abs), and AG (APC Abs). Thirty-five of these patients were not undergoing testosterone replacement therapy TRT (Group 1) and the remaining 26 patients started TRT before the beginning of the study (Group 2). KS autoantibody frequencies were compared to those found in 122 control men. Six of 61 KS patients (9.8 %) were positive for at least one endocrine autoantibody, compared to 6.5 % of controls. Interestingly, KS endocrine immunoreactivity was directed primarily against diabetes-specific autoantigens (8.2 %), with a significantly higher frequency than in controls (p = 0.016). Two KS patients (3.3 %) were TPO Ab positive, whereas no patients were positive for AD- and AG-related autoantigens. The autoantibody endocrine profile of untreated and treated KS patients was not significantly different. Our findings demonstrate for the first time that endocrine humoral immunoreactivity is not rare in KS patients and that it is more frequently directed against type 1 diabetes-related autoantigens, thus suggesting the importance of screening for organ-specific autoimmunity in clinical practice. Follow-up studies are needed to establish if autoantibody-positive KS patients will develop clinical T1DM.
['Panimolle|Francesca|F|', 'Tiberti|Claudio|C|', 'Granato|Simona|S|', 'Semeraro|Antonella|A|', 'Gianfrilli|Daniele|D|', 'Anzuini|Antonella|A|', 'Lenzi|Andrea|A|', 'Radicioni|Antonio|A|']
D000293:Adolescent D000311:Adrenal Glands D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D001323:Autoantibodies D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 D004702:Endocrine Glands D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy D006801:Humans D007006:Hypogonadism D056724:Immunity, Humoral D007713:Klinefelter Syndrome D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D013270:Stomach D013739:Testosterone D013961:Thyroid Gland D055815:Young Adult
Autoimmunity Type 1 diabetes Hypogonadism Klinefelter’s syndrome