Immunological aspect of non-obese diabetic mice: immune islet cell-killing mechanism and cell-mediated immunity

Abstract

The non-obese diabetic mouse is thought to be one of the best available animal models for human Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes. By ⁵¹Cr release assay we investigated cell-mediated cytotoxicity to the islet cells of Balb/C mice, natural killer activity, and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity activity of spleen lymphocytes from pre-diabetic non-obese diabetic mice. The cell-mediated cytotoxicity to islet cells of non-obese diabetic mice was significantly higher than that of control ICR mice. In contrast, natural killer and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity activities of the spleen cells from the non-obese diabetic mice were significantly lower than those of ICR mice spleen cells. These results suggest that lymphocytes from non-obese diabetic mice were sensitized to the antigen of islet cells and that the non-specific cellular immunity of non-obese mice was reduced. They suggest also that this immune islet cell-killing mechanism may play an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice.