Natural anti-insulin autoantibodies in cats: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the determination of plasma anti-insulin IgG and its concentrations in domestic cats.

Anti-insulin immunoglobulin G (IgG) has been found in the sera of healthy cats. To determine the concentrations of these antibodies, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for anti-insulin IgG was developed. ELISA maintained the linearity of a standard concentration line between 67.5 and 2160 ng/ml. The coefficients of variances (CVs) of intra-assays in two different plasma samples were 4.0% and 3.7%, respectively. The inter-assay CVs in two different plasma samples were 5.1% and 6.9%, respectively. The dilution curves of two samples were rectilinear. Anti-insulin IgG was detected in all 84 of the healthy cats that were tested. Plasma anti-insulin IgG concentrations ranged from 80 to 1578 µg/ml, with a median concentration of 221 µg/ml, and this value correlated positively with total plasma IgG concentrations (r=0.383, p<0.01). In an intravenous glucose tolerance test, plasma anti-insulin IgG concentrations did not alter, even with changes in plasma glucose and insulin concentrations. The ELISA that was developed was able to determine plasma anti-insulin IgG in domestic cats, and confirmed that all healthy cats had plasma anti-insulin IgG. Determining the plasma concentrations of anti-insulin IgG in cats with various pathological conditions might clarify the role of anti-insulin IgG.

Microglial cell line established from prion protein-overexpressing mice is susceptible to various murine prion strains.

Several lines of evidence suggest that microglia have important roles in the pathogenesis of prion diseases. Here, we establish a novel microglial cell line (MG20) from neonatal tga20 mice that overexpress murine prion protein. After exposure to Chandler scrapie, we observed the replication and accumulation of disease-associated forms of the prion protein in MG20 cells up to the 15th passage. Furthermore, MG20 cells were susceptible to ME7, Obihiro scrapie, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy agents. Thus, MG20 cell lines persistently infected with various murine prion strains provide a useful model for the study of the pathogenesis of prion diseases.