Significance of cow's milk protein antibodies as risk factor for childhood IDDM: interactions with dietary cow's milk intake and HLA-DQB1 genotype

Short-term exclusive breastfeeding predisposes young children with increased genetic risk of Type I diabetes to progressive beta-cell autoimmunity

“…The possible deleterious effect of such factors might be cumulative over time [29] and might therefore also act as promoters of the destructive beta-cell process. Cows' milk proteins have been proposed as a trigger for the activation of the immune system in the destructive process leading to Type I diabetes early in childhood, possibly during the first years of life [13]. We found an association between positivity for all four autoantibodies and an early exposure to cows' milk.…”

“…In immunological studies increased titres of cows' milk antibodies have been observed in children with newly diagnosed diabetes. This supports an association between exposure to cows' milk and Type I diabetes [12,13], whereas the data on T-cell responses to proteins of cows' milk remains controversial [14]. Cows' milk was recently reported to be an environmental trigger of an immune response to insulin during infancy [15].…”

T Cells of Multiple Sclerosis Patients Target a Common Environmental Peptide that Causes Encephalitis in Mice

“…Collectively, these observations associate MS with abnormal T cell immunity to common environmental food Ags in cow milk, and they bring to three the number of autoimmune disorders with abnormal immunity to BSA: T1DM, rheumatoid arthritis, and MS (26,48,49). In MS, this abnormality might contribute to the association of high cow milk exposure and the risk to develop MS or its relapses (11)(12)(13)50).…”

Beware of Antibodies to Dietary Proteins in “Antigen-specific” Immunoassays! Falsely Positive Anticytokine Antibody Tests Due to Reactivity with Bovine Serum Albumin in Rheumatoid Arthritis (The Swedish TIRA Project)

“…However, also in populations-based samples, the occurrence of IgG antibodies to BSA is a common finding although levels seem to decline with age [33,34]. In human disease, anti-BSA has attracted most interest regarding insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), where increased levels of anti-BSA antibodies as well as cross reactivity between a BSA peptide sequence and a pancreatic -cell surface protein has been suggested [35,36] and the potential role of BSA and other cow's milk proteins in the development of IDDM is still a matter of considerable interest [37,38]. In a study by Mogues et al, a sensitive quantitative anti-BSA antibody assay was developed, and a proper cut-off level was carefully defined [39].…”