Abstracts Archive

Aim: The majority of people with long duration (>5years) T1D have a small number of functioning beta-cells, and a small proportion of these have relatively high C-peptide despite longstanding T1D. However, the clinical correlates and mechanisms for persistent beta cell function are not known...

Background Vitamin C might protect beta cells from oxidative damage and thus prevent islet autoimmunity (IA) and type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). We studied the association of plasma vitamin C concentration with the risk of developing T1DM related outcomes and examined whether missense single nucle...

Background. Environmental factors are crucial in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D). In this sense, betamethasone –a synthetic glucocorticoid administered to women at risk of preterm delivery to improve newborn survival– could alter the development of foetal immune system, influencing the...

Reduction in White Blood Cell, Neutrophil and Red Blood Cell counts Related to Gender, HLA and Islet Autoantibodies in Swedish TEDDY Children at Increased Risk for Type 1 Diabetes Falastin Salami, Hye-Seung Lee, Eva Freyhult, Helena Elding Larsson, Åke Lernmark and Carina Törn, the TEDDY study gro...

  Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a potential therapy for metabolic syndrome and diabetes. It has been shown that FMT increased insulin sensitivity in metabolic syndrome. Here we show that FMT significantly restored glucose homeostasis in refractory diabetes even if the islet function wer...

Human ex vivo regulatory T cells (Treg) are commonly distinguished from conventional T cells (Tconv) by their expression of CD4+ CD25+, FOXP3+ and the lack of CD127. However, upon stimulation Tconv can up- or downregulate Treg characteristic markers making it difficult to distinguish effector and ...

IL-2 is a promising therapy for autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D), but the short half-life of injected IL-2 (less than 6 minutes) necessitates frequent injections and limits effective tissue exposure to IL-2. We have developed an injectable hydrogel for delivery of sustained release IL-2. This platf...

Background Islet transplantation in patients with type 1 diabetes can be associated to re-activation of quiescent autoreactive T cells and standard immuno-suppression has limited capacity to control autoimmunity recurrence. Once activated, autoreactive T cells upregulate the glucose transporter GLUT...

Depending on population, 0.1-1.0% of children will develop autoimmunity to pancreatic beta cells in childhood and subsequently type 1 diabetes (T1D). The risk is increased more than 10x if a child has a family history of T1D. We explored the interaction between genetic susceptibility and this excess...

The endothelial receptor Robo4 protects from islet inflammation during MLDS–Induced Diabetes in Mice Troullinaki Maria1, Chen Lan-sun1, Triantafyllos Chavakis1 and Antonios Chatzigeorgiou1,2 1) Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Ger...

BACKGROUND: Antigen-presenting cell (APC) populations in pancreatic lymph nodes (PLNs) remain poorly defined, and whether phenotypic or functional alterations in these populations contribute to the imbalance in T cell responses in human PLNs is yet to be determined. Furthermore, alternative APC subs...

Silvia Garavelli1 Mario Galgani2, Sara Bruzzaniti2, Adriana Franzese3, Enza Mozzillo3, Giuseppe Matarese2,4 and Paola de Candia1,   1Fondazione Multimedica Onlus, Milan, Italy. 2Istituto per l’Endocrinologia e l’Oncologia Sperimentale “G. Salvatore” Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Napl...

  In contrast to type 1 diabetes (T1D), immune deviations in patients with organ-specific autoimmune diseases, e.g. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), Grave’s disease (GD) and Addison’s disease (AD), have not been extensively characterised. Additionally, the phenotype of peripheral blood mononucle...

Background;This is a study of 282 research subjects in vivo (n=52) and in vitro (n=230) related to the clinical and metabolic effects of repeat BCG vaccines in type 1 diabetic subjects (T1D). Methods:We report on a randomized, placebo-controlled examination of adult subjects with long-term type 1 di...

Background: Staging of preclinical type 1 diabetes (T1D) begins with the development of multiple autoantibodies (AAb). Single AAb have shown lower risk (14.5% risk of T1D within 10 years) and may result in reversion to no AAb, persistence as single AAb, or progression to 2 or more AAb. It remains un...

  CD8+ T cells are key player of the adaptive immune response. Improving our understanding of antigen-specific T cell responses on the single cell level will be crucial for the development of highly effective future vaccines and a necessity to resolve or minimize errant immunity in autoimmune disea...

Cell replacement therapy in type 1 diabetes (T1D) can be achieved by the transplantation of whole pancreas or pancreatic islets. Despite receiving conditioning regimen and immunosuppressive maintenance therapy, some patients show T cell-mediated allograft rejection and/or recurrence of autoimmunity...

Islet autoimmunity, the presymptomatic phase of type 1 diabetes (T1D), is characterized by aberrations in immune activation versus T-cell tolerance. However, the molecular underpinnings remain poorly understood. MiRNAs regulate multiple targets and thereby can alter complex cellular states. During r...

Background: Genome-wide association studies have demonstrated that variations in intron 19 of CLEC16A, in the 16p13.13 region of the human genome, are associated with risk of type 1 diabetes (T1D). This region is also associated with IgA deficiency and microbial diversity in the human gut. No conse...

    Background: The gut microbiome shapes the development of a healthy immune system and may be altered in children in the pre-clinical stage of type 1 diabetes (T1D). The Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA; endia.org.au) study investigates environment-gene interactions in t...

Background Islet-specific autoantibodies can predict the development of type 1 diabetes. However, it remains unclear how B cells contribute to the causal pancreatic immunopathology. Furthermore, up to 30% of people positive for multiple autoantibodies will not progress to type 1 diabetes within 10 y...

Introduction Changes in the blood metabolite levels prior to the onset of T1D have been reported in only a few studies. However, reported changes have not been replicated in independent studies and the validity of the research methods has been debated in the scientific community. Therefore, we set o...

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a complex disease that is influenced by various genetic and environmental factors. Studies have shown that a dysregulation in iron metabolism contributes to the development of diabetes, and higher dietary iron increases the risk of developing T1D. The underlying mechanism, h...

Steady glycaemic control is crucial for T1D patients, however it remains difficult to achieve with exogenous insulin therapy. An interesting and unexplored therapeutic option is the use of genetically modified adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors that have proved successful in the cure of monogenic ...

Background: The single residue polymorphism at b57 in HLA-DQ8 and I-Ag7 is the dominant genetic feature of T1D. The molecular mechanisms supporting this association are unknown. We had shown that a “P9 switch model” of T cell recognition was controlled by b57 for the recognition of HEL antigen; ...

 Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that results from autoreactive destruction of insulin producing beta cells and the pathogenesis is characterized by chronic infiltration of immune cells in islets. Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), is a central hub for cytosolic nucleic acid sensing i...

Background: Mitochondrial function and metabolism are fundamental for T-cell physiology and function. Upon T-cell activation genes encoding proteins that regulate mitochondrial ATP production undergo changes. Mitochondrial dysfunction in the T-cell compartment has been associated with human autoimmu...

Prevention of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in susceptible individuals has been aimed at either boosting immunosuppressive T regulatory (Treg) or reducing autoreactive T effector (Teff) cell number and function. Low dose anti-CD3 antibody therapy has been widely used both in preclinical models of T1D and in...

  Samuel I. Blum1, Ashley R. Burg1, Yi-Guang Chen2 and Hubert M. Tse1  1Department of Microbiology, Comprehensive Diabetes Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL  2Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI While microbial infections can...

Background Homeostatic interactions between immune cells and microbes are essential for inducing tolerance, while disruptions to these interactions can modify disease susceptibility. Recent studies, including our own, suggest that commensals are important environmental components of type 1 diabetes ...