The inhibitory receptor programmed death-1 (PD-1) constrains type 1 diabetes (T1D) in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse. However, how PD-1 influences diabetogenic CD4(+) T cells during natural diabetes is not fully understood. To address this question, we developed a novel model to investigate antigen-specific CD4(+) T cells under physiological conditions in vivo. We transferred a low number of...

Nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice develop insulitis and diabetes through a process involving autoimmunity to the 60-kDa heat shock protein (HSP60). Treatment of NOD mice with HSP60 or with peptides derived from HSP60 inhibits this diabetogenic process. We now report that NOD diabetes can be inhibited by vaccination with a DNA construct encoding human HSP60, with the pcDNA3 empty vector, or with an o...

The pathogenesis of type I diabetes (T1D) involves the immune-mediated destruction of insulin producing β-cells in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. Genetic analysis of families with a high incidence of T1D and non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice, a prototypical model of the disorder, uncovered multiple susceptibility loci, although most of the underlying immune defects remain to be delineated. He...

T-cell-mediated autoimmune diabetes in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice is closely associated with natural killer T (NKT)-cell deficiency. To determine whether intrinsic defects of the T-cell lineage contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease and NKT cell deficiency, we reconstituted the T-cell compartment in NOD.scid or BALB.scid mice with T-cells from NOD, nonobese diabetes-resistant (NOR), or...

Recently, interferon-gamma-inducing-factor (IGIF) has been described as a novel monokine that is a more potent interferong (IFNg ) inducer than IL-12. By cloning IGIF from affected tissue and studying IGIF gene expression, we describe for the first time a close association of this cytokine with an autoimmune disease. The non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse spontaneously develops autoimmune insulitis...

Although transgenic mice expressing murine B7-1 (mCD80) on their pancreatic beta cells under the rat insulin-1 promoter (RIP-mCD80(+) mice) rarely develop spontaneous beta cell destruction and diabetes, we have previously reported the transgene-dependent induction of profound insulitis and lethal diabetes following multiple low dose injections of the beta cell toxin streptozotocin (MLDS) in RIP...

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is caused by autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells. Non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice spontaneously develop diabetes similar to the human disease. Cytokines produced by islet-infiltrating mononuclear cells may be directly cytotoxic and can be involved in islet destruction coordinated by CD4+ and CD8+ cells. We utilized a semiquantitative RT-PCR assay to...