Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Prevention of Diabetes in Nonobese Diabetic Mice Mediated by CD1d-Restricted Nonclassical NKT Cells

2004; American Association of Immunologists; Volume: 173; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4049/jimmunol.173.5.3112

1550-6606

Nádia Duarte, Martin Stenström, Susana Campino, Marie‐Louise Bergman, Marie Lundholm, Dan Holmberg, Susanna Cardell,

T-cell and B-cell Immunology

Abstract A role for regulatory lymphocytes has been demonstrated in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes in the NOD mouse but the nature of these cells is debated. CD1d-restricted NKT lymphocytes have been implicated in this process. Previous reports of reduced diabetes incidence in NOD mice in which the numbers of NKT cells are artificially increased have been attributed to the enhanced production of IL-4 by these cells and a role for classical NKT cells, using the Vα14-Jα18 rearrangement. We now show that overexpression in NOD mice of CD1d-restricted TCR Vα3.2+Vβ9+ NKT cells producing high levels of IFN-γ but low amounts of IL-4 leads to prevention of type 1 diabetes, demonstrating a role for nonclassical CD1d-restricted NKT cells in the regulation of autoimmune diabetes.