In the diagnosis of diabetes, antibody test are used to assess the risk factor, need for insulin, or type of diabetes the patient suffers from. Type 1 diabetes is a genetic autoimmune disease with specific autoantibody markers that are not found in type 2 patients. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body to fight infection. When these antibodies attack the body’s own cells they are referred to as autoantibodies. Autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), islet antigen-2 (IA), insulin, and zinc transporter-8 are characteristic of type 1 diabetes.
Genetics and the Presence of Diabetes Antibody
Although genetic factors account for most cases of type 1 diabetes, there have been cases of identical twins, with identical genes, where one twin is diabetic and the other healthy. The prediction for inheriting diabetes is based on the presence of the genes HLA-DR3 or HLA-DR4 that are mostly found in whites. There are …