| 1. |
- Lobell, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Association of Autoimmune Addison's Disease with Alleles of STAT4 and GATA3 in European Cohorts
- 2014
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Ingår i: Plos One. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 9:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Gene variants known to contribute to Autoimmune Addison's disease (AAD) susceptibility include those at the MHC, MICA, CIITA, CTLA4, PTPN22, CYP27B1, NLRP-1 and CD274 loci. The majority of the genetic component to disease susceptibility has yet to be accounted for. Aim: To investigate the role of 19 candidate genes in AAD susceptibility in six European case-control cohorts. Methods: A sequential association study design was employed with genotyping using Sequenom iPlex technology. In phase one, 85 SNPs in 19 genes were genotyped in UK and Norwegian AAD cohorts (691 AAD, 715 controls). In phase two, 21 SNPs in 11 genes were genotyped in German, Swedish, Italian and Polish cohorts (1264 AAD, 1221 controls). In phase three, to explore association of GATA3 polymorphisms with AAD and to determine if this association extended to other autoimmune conditions, 15 SNPs in GATA3 were studied in UK and Norwegian AAD cohorts, 1195 type 1 diabetes patients from Norway, 650 rheumatoid arthritis patients from New Zealand and in 283 UK Graves' disease patients. Meta-analysis was used to compare genotype frequencies between the participating centres, allowing for heterogeneity. Results: We report significant association with alleles of two STAT4 markers in AAD cohorts (rs4274624: P = 0.00016; rs10931481: P = 0.0007). In addition, nominal association of AAD with alleles at GATA3 was found in 3 patient cohorts and supported by meta-analysis. Association of AAD with CYP27B1 alleles was also confirmed, which replicates previous published data. Finally, nominal association was found at SNPs in both the NF-kappa B1 and IL23A genes in the UK and Italian cohorts respectively. Conclusions: Variants in the STAT4 gene, previously associated with other autoimmune conditions, confer susceptibility to AAD. Additionally, we report association of GATA3 variants with AAD: this adds to the recent report of association of GATA3 variants with rheumatoid arthritis.
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| 2. |
- Ahlgren, Kerstin M., et al.
(författare)
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Increased IL-17A secretion in response to Candida albicans in autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 and its animal model
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Journal of Immunology. - : Wiley. - 0014-2980 .- 1521-4141. ; 41:1, s. 235-245
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS-1) is a multiorgan autoimmune disease caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene. Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis, hypoparathyroidism and adrenal failure are hallmarks of the disease. The critical mechanisms causing chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis in APS-1 patients have not been identified although autoantibodies to cytokines are implicated in the pathogenesis. To investigate whether the Th reactivity to Candida albicans (C. albicans) and other stimuli was altered, we isolated PBMC from APS-1 patients and matched healthy controls. The Th17 pathway was upregulated in response to C. albicans in APS-1 patients, whereas the IL-22 secretion was reduced. Autoantibodies against IL-22, IL-17A and IL-17F were detected in sera from APS-1 patients by immunoprecipitation. In addition, Aire-deficient (Aire(0/0) ) mice were much more susceptible than Aire(+/+) mice to mucosal candidiasis and C. albicans-induced Th17- and Th1-cell responses were increased in Aire(0/0) mice. Thus an excessive IL-17A reactivity towards C. albicans was observed in APS-1 patients and Aire(0/0) mice.
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| 3. |
- Aranda-Guillén, Maribel, et al.
(författare)
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A polygenic risk score to help discriminate primary adrenal insufficiency of different etiologies.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of internal medicine. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0954-6820 .- 1365-2796. ; 294:1, s. 96-109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Autoimmune Addison's disease (AAD) is the most common cause of primary adrenal insufficiency (PAI). Despite its exceptionally high heritability, tools to estimate disease susceptibility in individual patients are lacking. We hypothesized that polygenic risk score (PRS) for AAD could help investigate PAI pathogenesis in pediatric patients.We here constructed and evaluated a PRS for AAD in 1223 seropositive cases and 4097 controls. To test its clinical utility, we reevaluated 18 pediatric patients, whose whole genome we also sequenced. We next explored the individual PRS in more than 120 seronegative patients with idiopathic PAI.The genetic susceptibility to AAD-quantified using PRS-was on average 1.5 standard deviations (SD) higher in patients compared with healthy controls (p < 2e - 16), and 1.2 SD higher in the young patients compared with the old (p = 3e - 4). Using the novel PRS, we searched for pediatric patients with strikingly low AAD susceptibility and identified cases of monogenic PAI, previously misdiagnosed as AAD. By stratifying seronegative adult patients by autoimmune comorbidities and disease duration we could delineate subgroups of PRS suggesting various disease etiologies.The PRS performed well for case-control differentiation and susceptibility estimation in individual patients. Remarkably, a PRS for AAD holds promise as a means to detect disease etiologies other than autoimmunity.
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| 4. |
- Bensing, Sophie, et al.
(författare)
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Increased death risk and altered cancer incidence pattern in patients with isolated or combined autoimmune primary adrenocortical insufficiency
- 2008
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Ingår i: Clinical Endocrinology. - : Wiley. - 0300-0664 .- 1365-2265. ; 69:5, s. 697-704
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: Primary adrenocortical insufficiency is mostly caused by an autoimmune destruction of the adrenal cortex. The disease may appear isolated or as a part of an autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome (APS). APS1 is a rare hereditary disorder with a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations. In APS2, primary adrenocortical insufficiency is often combined with autoimmune thyroid disease and/or type 1 diabetes. We analysed mortality and cancer incidence in primary adrenocortical insufficiency patients during 40 years. Data were compared with the general Swedish population. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: A population based cohort study including all patients with autoimmune primary adrenocortical insufficiency (3299) admitted to Swedish hospitals 1964-2004. MEASUREMENTS: Mortality risk was calculated as the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) and cancer incidence as the standardized incidence ratio (SIR). RESULTS: A more than 2-fold increased mortality risk was observed in both women (SMR 2.9, 95% CI 2.7-3.0) and men (SMR 2.5, 95% CI 2.3-2.7). Highest risks were observed in patients diagnosed in childhood. SMR was higher in APS1 patients (SMR 4.6, 95% CI 3.5-6.0) compared with patients with APS2 (SMR 2.1, 95% CI 1.9-2.4). Cancer incidence was increased (SIR 1.3, 95% CI 1.2-1.5). When tumours observed during the first year of follow-up were excluded, only the cancer risk among APS1 patients remained increased. Cause-specific cancer incidence analysis revealed significantly higher incidences of oral cancer, nonmelanoma skin cancer, and male genital system cancer among patients. Breast cancer incidence was lower than in the general population. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows a reduced life expectancy and altered cancer incidence pattern in patients with autoimmune primary adrenocortical insufficiency.
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| 5. |
- Bensing, Sophie, et al.
(författare)
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Lymphocytic hypophysitis : report of two biopsy-proven cases and one suspected case with pituitary autoantibodies
- 2007
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Ingår i: Journal of Endocrinological Investigation. - 0391-4097 .- 1720-8386. ; 30:2, s. 153-162
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Lymphocytic hypophysitis (LyH) is a rare inflammatory disease, considered to be autoimmune. LyH has mainly been reported in females and in relation to pregnancy or the post-partum period. We describe a 73-yr-old woman and a 63-yr-old male who were evaluated at our clinic because of pituitary hormone deficits. Both patients had pituitary masses suggestive of a pituitary adenoma on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Transsphenoidal pituitary surgery was performed and histopathological examinations revealed LyH in both cases. Clinical, laboratory, radiological and the histopathological findings in these two patients are discussed in detail. In addition, we report on a 79-yr-old man with partial hypopituitarism and empty sella. Screening of a human pituitary cDNA library with his serum revealed autoantibodies against secretogranin II. This is a protein commonly present in human gonadotrophs, thyreotrophs and corticotrophs. Since the patient selectively showed the corresponding pituitary insufficiencies, we speculate on an autoimmune background. Further studies may ascertain the importance of secretogranin II autoantibodies as markers for LyH.
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| 6. |
- Bensing, Sophie, et al.
(författare)
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No evidence for autoimmunity as a major cause of the empty sella syndrome
- 2004
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Ingår i: Experimental and clinical endocrinology & diabetes. - : Georg Thieme Verlag KG. - 0947-7349 .- 1439-3646. ; 112:5, s. 231-235
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- OBJECTIVE: The cause of empty sella syndrome (ESS) remains largely unknown. We measured eleven organ-specific autoantibodies in serum in order to evaluate possible autoimmune components in ESS. PATIENTS: Thirty patients with ESS and 50 healthy blood donors participated in the study. MEASUREMENTS: Detection of pituitary autoantibodies was performed by immunoblotting with human pituitary cytosol as antigen. Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) and TSH receptor (TRAK) autoantibodies were analysed by radioimmunoassay. The remaining eight autoantibodies were detected by in vitro transcription and translation of the autoantigens and immunoprecipitation. RESULTS: The majority of the ESS patients (18/30) exhibited no immunoreactivity at all. None of the remaining 12 ESS patients reacted against more than one autoantigen. No immunoreactivity was found more frequently among ESS patients than healthy blood donors. Pituitary autoantibodies were not correlated to the ESS patients' pituitary function or sellar size, although the results indicated a tendency of increased autoimmunity in patients with hypopituitarism and normal sella size respectively. CONCLUSION: Detection of autoantibodies is a valuable tool in the diagnostic work-up of autoimmune diseases. By analysing a large number of organ-specific autoantibodies we found no evidence of ESS being associated with any specific autoimmune disease. The pathogenesis of ESS is believed to be heterogeneous and our findings suggest autoimmune components to be of minor importance. In some selective cases, ESS in combination with hypopituitarism may be the result of an autoimmune disease in the pituitary gland but this needs further investigation.
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| 7. |
- Bensing, Sophie, et al.
(författare)
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Pituitary autoantibodies in autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1
- 2007
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 104:3, s. 949-954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS1) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene. High titer autoantibodies (Aabs) toward intracellular enzymes are a hallmark for APS1 and serve as diagnostic markers and predictors for disease manifestations. In this study, we aimed to identify pituitary autoantigens in patients with APS1. A pituitary cDNA expression library was screened with APS1 sera and a tudor domain containing protein 6 (TDRD6) cDNA clone was isolated. Positive immunoreactivity against in vitro translated TDRD6 fragments was shown in 42/86 (49%) APS1 patients but not in patients with other autoimmune diseases or in healthy controls. By using immunohistochemistry, sera from 3/6 APS1 patients with growth hormone (GH) deficiency showed immunostaining of a small number of guinea pig anterior pituitary cells, and 40-50% of these cells were GH-positive. No such immunostaining was seen with sera from healthy controls. The APS1 Aab-positive, GH-negative cells may represent a novel subpopulation of anterior pituitary cells. In addition, 4/6 patient sera showed staining of a fiber-plexus in the pituitary intermediate lobe recognizing enzymes of monoamine and GABA synthesis. Thus, we have identified TDRD6 as a major autoantigen in APS1 patients and shown that several sera from GH-deficient patients stain specific cell populations and nerves in the pituitary gland.
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| 8. |
- Bensing, Sophie
(författare)
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Pituitary autoantibodies in endocrine disorders
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Autoimmune endocrine disorders are characterised by the development of autoantibodies to specific autoantigens in the target organs. Lymphocytic hypophysitis (LyH) is a disease characterised by inflammation of the pituitary gland, often resulting in hypopituitarism. The aetiology of LyH is considered to be autoimmune. However, only a few pituitary autoantigens have so far been identified. Reliable autoantibody markers are requested in the diagnostic procedure of LyH to avoid unnecessary surgical intervention. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of pituitary autoantibodies in patients with nonadenomatous pituitary disease and also to identify novel pituitary autoantigens. Autoantibodies to human pituitary cytosolic proteins were determined by immunoblotting. Reactivity to a M, 49 000 pituitary autoantigen was significantly more frequent in patients with idiopathic pituitary hormone deficiency (6/21 (28%) p< 0.05) as well as their relatives (10/35 (28%) p<0.02) compared to control subjects (3/44 (6.8%)). The importance of these pituitary autoantibodies as markers for LyH remains to be confirmed. Autoantibodies against human pituitary cytosol and ten additional organspecific autoantigens were measured in sera from 30 patients with empty sella syndrome (ESS). None of the autoantibodies tested was more frequently found in ESS patients compared to healthy controls. Thus, by analysing autoantibodies we did not find evidence of ESS being associated with any autoimmune disease. Autoantibodies to a novel 36-kDa pituitary cytosolic autoantigen were more common in patients with ACTH-deficiency (12/65 (18.5%) compared to control subjects (2/57 3.5%) (p<0.0214). In addition, autoantibodies to thyroglobulin (M) were positively correlated to immunoreactivity against the 36-kDa pituitary autoantigen. A human pituitary cDNA expression library was successfully constructed. Immunoscreening identified secretogranin II as a pituitary autoantigen in a patient with partial pituitary insufficiency and empty sella. By immunohistochemistry, autoantibodies against ACTH and gonadotrophs were detected in sera from patients with autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS1) and GHdeficiency. Sera from these patients also showed staining of monoamine and GABA nerve terminals in the pituitary intermediate lobe, in agreement with immunoreactivity towards enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of neurotransmittors. By screening of the human pituitary cDNA expression library we identified TDR136 as a major autoantigen in APS 1.
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| 9. |
- Bergthorsdottir, Ragnhildur, 1971, et al.
(författare)
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Increased risk of hospitalization, intensive care and death due to covid-19 in patients with adrenal insufficiency : a Swedish nationwide study
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Internal Medicine. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0954-6820 .- 1365-2796.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Patients with adrenal insufficiency (AI) have excess morbidity and mortality related to infectious disorders. Whether patients with AI have increased morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 is unknown.Methods: In this linked Swedish national register-based cohort study, patients with primary and secondary AI diagnosis were identified and followed from 1 January 2020 to 28 February 2021. They were compared with a control cohort from the general population matched 10:1 for age and sex. The following COVID-19 outcomes were studied: incidence of COVID-19 infection, rates of hospitalization, intensive care admission and death. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) adjusted for socioeconomic factors and comorbidities were estimated using Cox regression analysis.Results: We identified 5430 patients with AI and 54,300 matched controls: There were 47.6% women, mean age was 57.1 (standard deviation 18.1) years, and the frequency of COVID-19 infection was similar, but the frequency of hospitalization (2.1% vs. 0.8%), intensive care (0.3% vs. 0.1%) and death (0.8% vs. 0.2%) for COVID-19 was higher in AI patients than matched controls. After adjustment for socioeconomic factors and comorbidities, the HR (95% CI) was increased for hospitalization (1.96, 1.59–2.43), intensive care admission (2.76, 1.49–5.09) and death (2.29, 1.60–3.28).Conclusion: Patients with AI have a similar incidence of COVID-19 infection to a matched control population, but a more than twofold increased risk of developing a severe infection or a fatal outcome. They should therefore be prioritized for vaccination, antiviral therapy and other appropriate treatment to mitigate hospitalization and death.
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| 10. |
- Bjornsdottir, Sigridur, et al.
(författare)
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Circadian hormone profiles and insulin sensitivity in patients with Addison's disease : a comparison of continuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion with conventional glucocorticoid replacement therapy
- 2015
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Ingår i: Clinical Endocrinology. - : Wiley. - 0300-0664 .- 1365-2265. ; 83:1, s. 28-35
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ContextConventional glucocorticoid replacement therapy in patients with Addison's disease (AD) is unphysiological with possible adverse effects on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. The diurnal cortisol profile can likely be restored by continuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion (CSHI). ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to compare circadian hormone rhythms and insulin sensitivity in conventional thrice-daily regimen of glucocorticoid replacement therapy with CSHI treatment in patients with AD. Design and settingAn open, randomized, two-period, 12-week crossover multicentre trial in Norway and Sweden. PatientsTen Norwegian patients were admitted for 24-h sampling of hormone profiles. Fifteen Swedish patients underwent euglycaemic-hyperinsulinaemic clamp. InterventionThrice-daily regimen of oral hydrocortisone (OHC) and CSHI treatment. Main outcome measureWe measured the circadian rhythm of cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-1, (IGF-1), IGF-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), glucose, insulin and triglycerides during OHC and CSHI treatment. Euglycaemic-hyperinsulinaemic clamp was used to assess insulin sensitivity. ResultsContinuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion provided a more physiological circadian cortisol curve including a late-night cortisol surge. ACTH levels showed a near normal circadian variation for CSHI. CSHI prevented a continuous decrease in glucose during the night. No difference in insulin sensitivity was observed between the two treatment arms. ConclusionContinuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion replacement re-established a circadian cortisol rhythm and normalized the ACTH levels. Patients with CSHI replacement had a more stable night-time glucose level compared with OHC without compromising insulin sensitivity. Thus, restoring night-time cortisol levels might be advantageous for patients with AD.
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