Autoantibodies to insulin do appear in non-diabetic patients with autoimmune disorders: comparison with anti-immunoglobulin antibodies and other autoimmune phenomena.

Insulin- and anti-immunoglobulin-antibodies have been recently reported in pre-diabetic subjects: the former has been proposed as a predictive marker or Type I diabetes in non-diabetic-subjects. To evaluate the diabetes-related specificity of these antibodies, the presence of insulin autoantibodies, and of anti-immunoglobulin antibodies together with that of immune complexes and of other autoantibodies has been investigated in patients with organ- or non-organ-specific autoimmune diseases