Danish children born with glutamic acid decarboxylase-65 and islet antigen-2 autoantibodies at birth had an increased risk to develop type 1 diabetes

OBJECTIVE: A large, population-based case–control cohort was used to test the hypothesis that glutamic acid decarboxylase-65 (GAD65) and islet antigen-2 autoantibodies (IA-2A) at birth predict type 1 diabetes. DESIGN AND METHODS: The design was an individually matched case–control study of all Danish type 1 diabetes patients born between 1981 and 2002 and diagnosed before May 1 2004 (median age at diagnosis was 8.8 years). Dried blood spot samples collected 5 days after birth in the 1981–2002 birth cohorts and stored at −25 °C were identified from 2023 patients and from two matched controls (n=4042). Birth data and information on parental age and diabetes were obtained from Danish registers. GAD65A and IA-2A were determined in a radiobinding assay. HLA-DQB1 alleles were analyzed by PCR using time-resolved fluorescence. RESULTS: GAD65A and IA-2A were found in 70/2023 (3.5%) patients compared to 21/4042 (0.5%) controls resulting in a hazard ratio (HR) of 7.49 (P<0.0001). The HR decreased to 4.55 but remained significant (P<0.0003) after controlling for parental diabetes and HLA-DQB1 alleles. Conditional logistic regression analysis showed a HR of 2.55 (P<0.0001) for every tenfold increase in the levels of GAD65A and IA-2A. This HR decreased to 1.93 but remained significant (P<0.001) after controlling for parental diabetes and HLA-DQB1 alleles. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that GAD65A and IA-2A positivity at birth are associated with an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes in Danish children diagnosed between 1981 and 2004.