Clinical and genetic characteristics of patients with autoimmune thyroid disease with anti-islet autoimmunity.

In contrast to the large number of studies on autoimmunity against the thyroid gland in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, little is known about the anti-islet autoimmune status in patients with autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs). We therefore studied the anti-islet autoimmune status in patients with AITD and the clinical and genetic characteristics of AITD patients with anti-islet autoimmunity. The positivity and titer of glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GAD Ab) were studied in 866 Japanese patients with AITD (546 with Graves disease and 320 with Hashimoto thyroiditis), 221 patients with thyroid disease of nonautoimmune origin, and 282 control subjects.

Gonadal hormones and gonadal function in type 2 diabetes model OLETF (Otsuka Long Evans Tokushima Fatty) rats.

Gonadal functions, with special reference to blood levels of sex-related markers such as 17beta-estradiol (E2), free testosterone (free Te) and lutenizing hormone (LH), were examined in male OLETF (Otsuka Long Evans Tokushima Fatty) diabetic rats, a model of human type 2 diabetes mellitus. Male rats of the OLETF strain and male rats of the LETO strain, which act as a control of OLETF, both supplied by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.