Endocrine Abstracts

It is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of thyroid autoimmunity by Rose and Witebsky in suitably immunised rabbits and then by Doniach and Roitt who identified thyroglobulin antibodies in the serum of patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. This is really the exemplar or paradigm of an autoimmune disease and subsequent discoveries have provided new paradigms. Graves’ disease is a prime example of disease apparently caused exclusively by an autoantibody while unrav...

Context: Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS1) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the autoimmune regulator gene. Hypoparathyroidism occurs in 80% of patients with APS1 and has been suggested to result from an autoimmune reaction against the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) on parathyroid cells. Previously, we have detected CaSR-binding antibodies in patients with APS1 using immunoprecipitation and flow cytometry assays.Obj...