Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults with low-titer GAD antibodies: Similar disease progression with type 2 diabetes A Nation-wide, Multi-center Prospective Study (LADA CHINA STUDY 3) Running title: low GADA titer LADA LINGJIAO LIU, MD 1* ; XIA LI, MD, PHD 1* ; YUFEI XIANG, MD, PHD 1 ; GAN HUANG, MS 1 ; LIN YANG, MD, PHD 1 ; YUNJUAN ZHAO, MD 1 ; ZHIFANG YANG, MD, PHD 1 ; CAN HOU, MD, PHD 1 ; YIJUN LI, MD, PHD 1 ; JIE LIU, MD 2 ; DALONG ZHU, MD, PHD 3 ; R. DAVID LESLIE, MD 4 ; XIANGBING WANG, MD, PHD 1 ; ZHIGUANG ZHOU, MD, PHD 1 ; on behalf of the LADA China Study Group From the 1 Institute of Metabolism and Endocrinology, The Second Xiangya Hospital and the Diabetes Center, Metabolic Syndrome Research Center, Key Laboratory of Diabetes Immunology, Ministry of Education, Central South University, National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, Changsha, Hunan, China; the 2 Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Shanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Taiyuan, China; the 3 Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Nanjing University affiliated Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China; and the 4 Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Medicine, Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, London, UK. * LINGJIAO LIU and XIA LI contributed equally to this work. Corresponding author: Zhiguang Zhou, Diabetes Center, Institute of Metabolism and Endocrinology, The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Diabetes Immunology, Ministry of Education, Central South University, National Clinical Research Center for Metabolic Diseases, Changsha, Hunan, China. E-mail address: zhouzg@hotmail.com . Word count: 2899 Number of tables and figures: 3 tables, 3 figures