An overview of the symposium

✍ Scribed by Alan W. Luxton

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 202 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-9120
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-9120(93)90130-x

✦ Synopsis

T he Annual Scientific Symposium of the Ontario Society of Clinical Chemists provides the opportunity for multiple interfaces: basic and applied research in biochemistry and medicine, the clinical practise of medicine and the service laboratory. The 1992 meeting integrated recent advances in basic physiologic and pathophysiologic mechanisms in glucose metabolism and diabetes with the clinical realities of diabetes and the role of the service laboratory in utilizing such knowledge to improve clinical outcomes.

Dr. Michael Dosch, who opened the Symposium, introduced the audience to the exciting and groundbreaking work of his research group on a mechanism for the development of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). Although IDDM is an autoimmune disorder with a strong genetic background and a number of susceptibility genes, there is an environmental trigger(s) involved in its initiation. Working from the observation that IDDM was unknown in Samoa until the introduction of cow's milk, experiments demonstrating cross-reactivity of anti-bovine serum albumin (BSA) antisera with a protein (P69) selectively expressed by insulinproducing beta cells suggested that these two proteins may share an epitope (the 'ABBOS' peptide) that allows an antibody response resulting in IDDM. Coupling this with the observation that exclusive breastfeeding appears to have a considerable protective effect against diabetes, Dr. Dosch and coworkers developed a model to test this hypothesis. After validating the model in animals, they are now attempting to do likewise for human disease. Although their preliminary data are impressive, Dr. Dosch stressed that the findings delineate disease