Editor's Summary
12 May 2005
Insulin sparks autoimmunity
Autoimmune reactions, in which the body's white blood cells harm its own tissues, cause many diseases including diabetes, multiple sclerosis and arthritis. It is not known why immune cells target certain organs, and in particular for childhood diabetes, why only insulin-producing cells are killed. Nakayama et al. now report that this may be because insulin itself is a primary autoantigen for autoimmune diabetes. In NOD mice, the standard animal model for diabetes, when the part of the insulin molecule that gives rise to autoantibodies is altered, autoimmune diabetes disappears. This also suggests that deletional immune therapy could be a practical proposition. The possible clinical relevance of this work is confirmed by a separate study by Kent et al. of human patients with type 1 diabetes. T lymphocytes found in the draining lymph nodes around the pancreas specifically recognize part of the insulin protein. This has implications for antigen specific therapies and islet-cell transplantation in diabetes.
News and Views: Immunology: Insulin trigger for diabetes
Type I diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys crucial cells in the pancreas. But what prompts the body to turn against itself so disastrously? It seems that insulin is the key.
Matthias von Herrath
doi: 10.1038/435151a
Letter: Prime role for an insulin epitope in the development of type 1 diabetes in NOD mice
Maki Nakayama, Norio Abiru, Hiroaki Moriyama, Naru Babaya, Edwin Liu, Dongmei Miao, Liping Yu, Dale R. Wegmann, John C. Hutton, John F. Elliott and George S. Eisenbarth
doi: 10.1038/nature03523
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (330K)
Letter: Expanded T cells from pancreatic lymph nodes of type 1 diabetic subjects recognize an insulin epitope
Sally C. Kent, Yahua Chen, Lisa Bregoli, Sue M. Clemmings, Norma Sue Kenyon, Camillo Ricordi, Bernhard J. Hering and David A. Hafler
doi: 10.1038/nature03625
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (271K) | Supplementary information
