
What causes type 1 diabetes? Lessons from animal models
What causes type 1 diabetes? Lessons from animal models
From Bartholin Instituttet, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen and Department of Veterinary Disease Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
Karsten Buschard, MD, Bartholin Instituttet, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark. e-mail: [email protected]
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To study type 1 diabetes (T1D), excellent animal models exist, both spontaneously diabetic and virus-induced. Based on knowledge from these, this review focuses on the environmental factors leading to T1D, concentrated into four areas which are: (1) The thymus-dependent immune system: T1D is a T cell driven disease and the beta cells are destroyed in an inflammatory insulitis process. Autoimmunity is breakdown of self-tolerance and the balance between regulator T cells and aggressive effector T cells is disturbed. Inhibition of the T cells (by e.g. anti-CD3 antibody or cyclosporine) will stop the T1D process, even if initiated by virus. Theoretically, the risk from immunotherapy elicits a higher frequency of malignancy. (2) The activity of the beta cells: Resting beta cells display less antigenicity and are less sensitive to immune destruction. Beta-cell
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