title: Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus: the hypothesis of molecular mimicry between islet cell antigens and microorganisms.
abstract: Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in humans and the non-obese diabetic mouse is a polygenic disease, resulting from an autoimmune destruction of the insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells. At least in NOD mice, the process is mediated through a T helper 1-cell-mediated cytotoxicity pathway. Although there is much circumstantial evidence to suggest that IDDM is environmentally induced, recent studies support the possibility that the inductive event involves cross-reactive immune responses to antigenic epitopes acting as molecular mimics between microbial proteins and autoantigens expressed by pancreatic insulin-secreting beta cells. The following article reviews the evidence for this concept.
authors.affiliation: New Orleans Research Institute, New Orleans Children's Hospital, LA 70118, USA.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Maclaren
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Alkinson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004770:Enterovirus / Q000737:chemistry; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D018448:Models, Immunological; D018716:Molecular Mimicry; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D014764:Viral Proteins; D005968:Glutamate Decarboxylase