Induction of insulitis in athymic (nude) mice: The effect of NOD thymus and pancreas transplantation

Abstract

The NOD mouse is a model for human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The disease is thought to have an autoimmune etiology because it is T-cell dependent and is characterized by mononuclear cell infiltration in and around the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. The mechanism by which autoreactive T- cells are generated is not fully understood, but it has been postulated that there is a breakdown in self-tolerance induction during intrathymic T-cell maturation. The aim of these studies was to determine whether transplantation of NOD thymus into diabetes-resistant mouse strains would generate islet- reactive T-cells. Neonatal thymus was pretreated either by irradiation or culture in 2-deoxygua..