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Query: UMLS:C0011849 (diabetes)
 277,896 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Intrathymic transplantation of syngeneic islets into adolescent NOD/Lt mice was performed to establish whether the thymus would serve as an immunoprivileged site for beta-cell engraftment, and whether this treatment would prevent the development of diabetes by eliciting tolerance to islet antigens. Intrathymic injection of cells from 200 NOD islets into 4-wk-old female NOD/Lt mice produced a significant reduction in the severity of insulitis at 24 wk of age. Furthermore, diabetes development was strongly suppressed (11% incidence) compared with controls (100% incidence). Both thymus histology and thymic insulin content revealed a rapid loss of the implanted beta-cells with < 1% remaining 1 wk posttransplantation. Despite the rapid loss of thymus-implanted islet cells, evidence for tolerance induction to islet cell antigens was obtained by adoptive transfer of splenic leukocytes from these mice into NOD-scid/scid recipients. After adoptive transfer of splenic leukocytes from 24-wk-old untreated prediabetic donors, 4 of 5 NOD-scid/scid recipients developed diabetes within 4 wk, and none of the recipients became diabetic after transfer of splenocytes from intrathymic islet-implanted donors. Intrathymic islet transplantation did not lead to reduction of sialitis in females with reduced severity of insulitis, indicating that the protective effect was tissue specific. This also was reflected in adoptive transfer experiments, because equal severity of sialitis was observed in NOD-scid/scid recipients of spleen cells from either islet transplanted or control NOD/Lt mice. In conclusion, the data suggest that intrathymic injection of islet cells prevents diabetes by stimulating immunological tolerance to beta-cells.
Diabetes 1992 Dec
PMID:Intrathymic islet cell transplantation reduces beta-cell autoimmunity and prevents diabetes in NOD/Lt mice. 144 8

The autoimmune process that results in Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus may be viewed as a failure to develop or maintain tolerance to self-antigens expressed in the islets of Langerhans. During T-cell development in the thymus, cells that are reactive with self antigens encountered there may undergo clonal deletion or, as more recently described, clonal anergy which effectively removes these cells from the pool of mature antigen reactive T cells. For antigens not found in the thymus, tolerance to self antigens is more complex and may depend on site of antigen expression, ambient concentrations of lymphokines, and availability of antigen-presenting cells that can deliver co-stimulatory signals. Transgenic mice in which the majority of T cells express T-cell receptors against "self" antigens or in which expression of antigens is targeted to peripheral tissues have proven useful for studies of tolerance in both T- and B-cell compartments. In general, T-cell reactivity against foreign antigen expressed on Beta cells does not occur because of the failure to activate T cells reactive with the antigen, termed clonal ignorance. This may be broken with, for example, viral infection or cytokines. In one transgenic model, dendritic cells that surround the islets of Langerhans have been shown to be responsible for presentation of islet antigens to the immune system. B-cell tolerance can also involve mechanisms of clonal deletion or clonal anergy similar to that occurring with T cells. In addition, a mechanism for changing the affinity of the B-cell antigen receptor termed "receptor editing" has been described, which may play an important role in diversifying the B-cell repertoire while removing self-reactive cells. Tolerance to antigens may also be inducible. For example, monoclonal antibodies against T-cell epitopes may induce antigen-specific tolerance that is transferable to other animals, and MHC blocking peptides which can inhibit T-cell responses that are restricted by disease associated MHC molecules. In conclusion, although several possible triggers and mechanisms of autoimmune diabetes can be envisioned, none can be excluded by existing data. However, advances in understanding mechanisms of tolerance to islet and other self antigens suggest potentially useful therapeutic approaches to arresting the autoimmune response.
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PMID:Autoimmune tolerance and type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. 147 78

The authors studied the proliferative response of central and peripheral lymphoid organs of male BALB/c mice with alloxan diabetes to injections of a zinc-insulin suspension (1 u/mouse/24 hours) given for 1, 3, or 5 days. Insulin therapy failed to compensate the diabetes completely, but normalized to a considerable measure the diminished proliferative activity of the young lymphoid cells of the thymus and bone marrow from the third day of the experiment. Autoradiographic study showed that the thymus of diabetic mice was marked by a significant reduction of the percentage of young lymphoid cells bearing insulin receptors on their surface. The results of the experiments point to insulin dependence of central lymphopoiesis in rats.
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PMID:[Lymphopoiesis in mice with alloxan diabetes in experimental insulin therapy]. 148 Apr 16

Allogeneic fetal liver cell transplantation has been shown to be able to reconstitute lymphopoietic systems of mice when these systems are defective or destroyed. Lethally irradiated mice or mice with inherited severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) were grafted with 14 days gestation allogeneic fetal liver cells, then subjected to a follow-up for the immune tolerance to the donor and the normal or subnormal immune reconstitution allowing prevention of diabetes in NOD mice or cure of leukemia in AKR mice and of immunodeficiency in SCID mice. Briefly, when normal CBA mice were lethally irradiated and then grafted with allogeneic fetal liver cells from Balb/c mice, a specific immune tolerance was induced to donor skin grafts. Unrelated skin grafts were rejected and a response to antigens was observed in these chimeras. However, despite the capacity to develop hyperacute rejection of skin allografts, following hyperimmunization, these chimeric mice did not produce anti-H2 cytotoxic antibodies. In SCID mice (CB17), the immune reconstitution occurred when mice were grafted with allogeneic (C57/B16) as well as with syngeneic fetal liver cells. Human cells were found in SCID mice following implantation of human fetal liver and thymus cells. When NOD mice were irradiated, then grafted with allogeneic fetal liver cells, a large part of donor cells were found in NOD recipients, correlating with a low incidence of diabetes. Leukemic AKR mice grafted with allogeneic fetal liver cells had virtually no leukemia relapse, suggesting a strong graft-versus-leukemia effect following such a transplant.
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PMID:Fetal liver cell transplantation in various murine models. 150 74

The main goal of this study was to evaluate the possible influence of thymus extracts on the chemotaxis of PMN isolated from diabetic patients. The analyzed group consisted of fifty patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDD), and twenty healthy adults were taken as controls. The results showed, that PMN isolated from patients with IDD manifested the impaired chemotaxis toward zymosan-activated plasma (ZAP), plasma incubated with cellophane and supernate from E. coli culture. Both thymus extracts did not change the directed migration toward control plasma and toward ZAP. THYMEX-L did improve the migration of diabetic PMN toward plasma incubated with cellophane, whereas TFX-THYMOMODULIN ameliorated the impaired chemotaxis toward supernate from E. coli culture. Both thymus extracts can attract PMN obtained from healthy donors, but not the cells isolated from diabetic patients.
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PMID:The influence of thymus extracts on the chemotaxis of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) from patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDD). 151 13

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a protein hormone implicated in the development of septic shock and other pathologic states. However, complexities inherent in detecting TNF synthesis by individual tissues have left the precise origins of this protein undefined. In addition, the possibility that localized TNF production may contribute to the pathogenesis of organ-specific diseases such as type I diabetes has not been explored in vivo. We have developed a transgenic mouse line bearing a reporter gene construct in which the TNF coding sequence and introns are replaced by a chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) coding sequence. In normal transgenic animals, CAT activity is expressed only in the thymus. When endotoxin is administered to the animals, CAT activity is also evident in kidney, heart, islets of Langerhans, spleen, lung, fallopian tubes, and uterus, but not in other organs. The biosynthesis of CAT in vivo correlated with tissue capacity to secrete TNF in vitro. Thus, TNF was secreted by all the tissues that expressed CAT, including lung, spleen, thymus, uterus/fallopian tubes, pancreatic islets, renal glomeruli, and cultured cardiac cells after exposure to endotoxin.
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PMID:The tissue distribution of tumor necrosis factor biosynthesis during endotoxemia. 152 26

An important goal in the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes by pancreatic islet transplantation is the development of strategies that allow permanent survival of islet allografts without continuous host immunosuppression. In this study, we demonstrate that inoculation of allogeneic bone marrow into the thymus of adult rats treated with a single dose of anti-lymphocyte serum induces an unresponsive state that permits survival of subsequent pancreatic islet allografts transplanted to an extrathymic site. This effect is donor specific, cannot be reproduced by systemic administration of bone marrow, and is associated with persistence of chimeric cells in the thymus of the recipient. In addition, lymph node cells from long-term recipients of intrathymic bone marrow display markedly reduced proliferative responses to donor alloantigens in mixed lymphocyte culture. Interaction of maturing thymocytes with foreign alloantigens may produce the unresponsiveness. This model offers a potential approach for establishing donor-specific allograft acceptance in adult recipients.
Diabetes 1992 Jun
PMID:Promotion of pancreatic islet allograft survival by intrathymic transplantation of bone marrow. 153 58

Spontaneous diabetes in the BioBreeding (BB) rat, like human type I diabetes, results from the destruction of pancreatic islets by autoreactive T lymphocytes recognizing beta cell-specific antigens. T cell tolerance is in part mediated by interactions of maturing thymocytes with antigens expressed in the thymic microenvironment; islets were therefore implanted into the thymus of neonatal diabetes-prone BB rats to determine whether exposure of T cell precursors to beta cell antigens could influence the development of diabetes. This treatment completely prevented diabetes and insulitis in the native pancreas. The effect may be the result of specific modulation of diabetogenic T cells maturing in an islet-bearing thymus.
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PMID:Prevention of autoimmune diabetes in the BB rat by intrathymic islet transplantation at birth. 159 76

The effect of oral administration of THI, a compound present in ammonia caramel food colouring, was studied in spontaneous and induced murine diabetes mellitus. Continuous administration of THI at 400 ppm in drinking water reduced the prevalence of spontaneous diabetes in female NOD/Lt mice from 63% in untreated controls to 8% in treated animals. Since cyclophosphamide (CP) accelerates and intensifies diabetes in NOD mice, we also studied the effect of THI in this model. Diabetes incidence was reduced from 100% in mice given only CP to 13-14% in mice given THI either concurrently or from 14 days previously. Histologically, THI greatly reduced the severity of insulitis. As measured by flow cytometry, all THI-treated mice had a 60-80% reduction in splenic CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. THI-treated mice showed no untoward effects and specifically no weight loss, or pathological changes in their livers, kidneys or lungs. However, there was moderate atrophy of the thymus cortex. THI is a small imidazole-containing compound with structural similarity to histamine and urocanic acid, both known to have immunosuppressive properties. It is a widely used food additive with no known long-term toxic effects at low dosage. Thus, THI could be a useful immunosuppressive agent.
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PMID:Prevention of spontaneous and cyclophosphamide-induced diabetes in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice with oral 2-acetyl-4-tetrahydroxybutylimidazole (THI), a component of caramel colouring III. 160 24

We have used streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes in rats to determine whether this represents a sustained stimulus to the adrenocortical system and whether STZ-diabetic rats are able to mount an acute stress response. Furthermore, we compared pituitary responsiveness to CRF and/or arginine vasopressin, and adrenal responsiveness to ACTH in STZ- vs. vehicle-treated rats. We also compared the efficacy of dexamethasone inhibitory feedback in STZ-diabetic and control rats. Our results show that STZ-treated rats chronically hypersecrete corticosterone (B) as evidenced by their decreased thymus weights, their increased urinary B excretion, and their elevated mean plasma B levels during the light hours of the day. Despite the evidence for sustained hypersecretion of B, STZ-treated rats showed greater and more prolonged ACTH and B responses to the acute stress of histamine injection. However, when tested separately, neither pituitary nor adrenal responsiveness to their secretagogues were increased in STZ-diabetic compared to control rats. Dexamethasone inhibition of stress-induced B secretion was tested using two different paradigms: pentobarbital-anesthetized rats were given iv injections of acid saline, and awake rats were given ip injections of histamine. In both experiments the STZ-treated rats were relatively resistant to glucocorticoid inhibition of stress responses. This finding, taken together with the exaggerated ACTH and B responses to stress, strongly suggests that the facilitatory effects of chronic STZ-diabetes are a consequence of changes in sensitivity of central neural components of the adrenocortical system to stimulatory and/or inhibitory inputs, in conjunction with changes in glucocorticoid feedback sensitivity.
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PMID:Chronic streptozotocin diabetes in rats facilitates the acute stress response without altering pituitary or adrenal responsiveness to secretagogues. 164 14


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