Expression of a gastric autoantigen in pancreatic islets results in non‐destructive insulitis after neonatal thymectomy

Abstract

Autoimmune gastritis, induced by day‐3 thymectomy of BALB/c mice, is a destructive CD4+ T cell‐mediated disease characterized by leukocyte infiltrates in the gastric mucosa, loss of parietal and chief cells and anti‐gastric H/K ATPase autoantibodies. Our previous studies have indicated that a T cell response to the H/K ATPase β subunit is required for the onset of autoimmune gastritis (Alderuccio, F., Toh, B. H., Tan, S. S., Gleeson, P. A. and van Driel, I. R., J. Exp. Med. 1993. 178: 419). To determine whether a response to the β subunit autoantigen is alone sufficient to induce autoimmunity, or whether other tissue‐specific factors are required, we have generated transgenic mice expressing..