REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Disorders : Autoimmune Disorders
Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Youth
Provisionally accepted
- 1China Medical University, Shenyang, China
- 2Department of Pediatrics, ShengJing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
- 3Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Latent autoimmune diabetes in youth (LADY) is an emerging and under-recognized subtype of autoimmune diabetes, occurring in young individuals who present with clinical features overlapping both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. LADY shares pathophysiological characteristics with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) yet differs in its earlier onset and stronger autoimmune response. Due to its heterogeneous presentation, LADY is frequently misclassified as type 2 diabetes in youth, leading to delays in appropriate treatment. Moreover, there are currently no universally accepted diagnostic criteria or screening strategies specific to LADY. As a result, clinical management remains inconsistent and controversial. Given the rising incidence of autoimmune diabetes in youth and the clinical consequences of delayed diagnosis, there is an urgent need to better characterize LADY and develop age-specific diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnostic challenges, and treatment strategies of LADY. We also highlight the existing knowledge gaps and propose directions for future research and clinical practice with the aim of improving the recognition and management of this unique diabetes subtype in the pediatric population.
Keywords: Latent autoimmune diabetes in youth, Latent autoimmune diabetes, Slowly progressive insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes mellitus, β-cell autoimmunity, type 1.5 diabetes
Received: 23 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Yang, Jing, Meng, Zhang, Ruan and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Na Wu, 3441535223@qq.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.