4 and 5). Neither short ZnT8R nor ZnT8W peptides displaced the labelled ZnT8R (268–369) in binding to ZnT8RAb in patient P1-R (Fig. 4, panels A and B) or P2-R (Fig. 4, panels C and D). At 50–100 μg/ml, the short ZnT8W peptide reduced the binding by 10–20% in patient P1-R (Fig. 4, panel B). Neither of the short ZnT8 (318–331) peptide variants were able to compete with the labelled ZnT8W (268–369) in binding to ZnT8WAb in patient P3-W (Fig. 5, panels A and B) or P4-W (Fig. 5, panels C and buy RGFP966 D). The reactivity against

the ZnT8 325-epitope was also tested with various dilutions of the non-radioactive long ZnT8 (268–369) proteins (Figs. 6 and 7). The long ZnT8R protein showed a displacement of the labelled ZnT8R (268–369) protein in patients P1-R (Fig. 6, panel A) and P2-R (Fig. 6, panel C) that amounted to a half-maximal displacement (Kd) at 3.0 and 4.1 pmol/l, respectively. In patients, P1-R and P2-R (Fig. 6, panels B and D, respectively) the long ZnT8W protein displaced

FK506 order the labelled ZnT8R protein (Kd 26.1 and 11.1 pmol/l). In both ZnT8RAb-specific patients, the Kd of the long R protein was different from the W protein (P = 0.0003 and P < 0.0223, respectively; Table 2). Maximal displacement (Vmax) of the ZnT8RAb-positive patient sera with the long R protein was 90% and 87% (10% and 13% binding) (Fig. 6, panels A and C) compared to 67% and 78% (33% and 22% binding) with the long W protein (Fig. 6, panels B and D). Due to lack of serum from the ZnT8WAb-positive patients, P3-W and P4-W, two additional patients,

P5-W and P6-W, were selected for displacement with the long ZnT8 (268–369) protein. These patients were also tested with the short ZnT8 (318–331) peptide variants, which did not displace the labelled long ZnT8 protein in binding to ZnT8WAb (data not shown). In the P5-W and P6-W ZnT8WAb-positive sera, the long ZnT8W protein displaced the labelled ZnT8W (268–369) protein at Kd 10.4 pmol/l and Kd 15.5 pmol/l (Fig. 7, panels A and C, respectively). In the reciprocal permutation experiments, next a half-maximal displacement in patient P5-W (Kd > 108.6 pmol/l) was never achieved with the long ZnT8R protein as it was in patient P6-W (Kd 27.2 pmol/l) (Fig. 7, panels B and D). The Kd of the long W protein was markedly different from the R proteins in patient P5-W (P = 0.0016; Table 2), but not in patient P6-W (P = 0.2193; Table 2). In the ZnT8WAb-positive patient sera, Vmax with the long W protein was achieved at 89% and 75% (11% and 25% binding) (Fig. 7, panels A and C) compared to the Vmax for the long R protein at 44% and 68% (56% and 32% binding) (Fig. 7, panels B and D). It has been proposed that the specificity of autoantibodies for certain epitopes may be important to the prediction of the beta-cell destruction in T1D [23].