To investigate the role of RT6+ T cells in the pathogenesis of diabetes in BB/W rats, we treated animals from the diabetes-resistant (DR) subline with anti-RT6.1 lymphocytotoxic mAb. This depleted greater than 95% of peripheral RT6+ T cells but did not substantially reduce levels of circulating T cells or the in vitro response of spleen cells to mitogen. Treatment of 30-d-old DR BB/W rats in this way: induced insulitis and diabetes, rendered nondiabetic RT6-depleted DR rats susceptible to the adoptive transfer of diabetes by spleen cells from acutely diabetic BB/W rats, and yielded DR spleen cell populations capable of the adoptive transfer of diabetes to diabetes-prone (DP) or DR recipients. Treatment of DR rats beginning at 60 d of age failed to produce these effects. These results suggest that both susceptibility and resistance to diabetes in the BB/W rat are in part regulated by the RT6+ T cell subset and provide evidence for the importance of regulatory T lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and diabetes in BB/W rats.
Article|
August 01 1987
Depletion of RT6.1+ T lymphocytes induces diabetes in resistant biobreeding/Worcester (BB/W) rats.
D L Greiner
J P Mordes
E S Handler
M Angelillo
N Nakamura
A A Rossini
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
J Exp Med (1987) 166 (2): 461–475.
Citation
D L Greiner, J P Mordes, E S Handler, M Angelillo, N Nakamura, A A Rossini; Depletion of RT6.1+ T lymphocytes induces diabetes in resistant biobreeding/Worcester (BB/W) rats.. J Exp Med 1 August 1987; 166 (2): 461–475. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.166.2.461
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