SUMMARYWe have studied nucleic acid antibodies in 23 insulindependent diabetics, 27 of their first degree relatives, and 23 normal, unrelated controls. We have found a significantly increased prevalence of antibody to ss-DNA, ds-RNA (reovirus), and synthetic RNA (Poly A Poly U, Poly I Poly C) in the unaffected relatives as well as in the diabetics when compared with normal controls. There was no relationship in HLA. DIABETES 30:873-874, October 1981. R ecently, we reported a high prevalence rate of antibodies against nucleic acids in insulin-dependent diabetic (IDD) patients in contrast to agematched and non-age-matched controls.1 The high titers of antibody, especially to double stranded (ds-) RNA, appeared to be related to the recent onset of illness. We speculated that an immune response might have taken place against viral agents implicated in beta-cell damage after a varying incubation period. In general, antibody titers seemed to fall in most cases after several years of illness, but some patients seemed to retain high antibody titers even after IDD for 5 yr. These observations prompted us to screen for these antibodies in the nondiabetic members of HLA (histocompatibility) tissue typed families with two or more IDD sibs with varying duration of illness. We also searched for associations of the antibody titers with sex, HLA haplotypes, and several clinical features. METHODSPatients. Twenty-three IDD patients (ages 9-34 yr, 12 males) from 12 families with at least 2 IDD sibs participating in the Minnesota Diabetes Genetic Study were tested. Pa-
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