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Regulatory T cells (Treg) are important in peripheral tolerance, but their role in establishing and maintaining hematopoietic mixed chimerism and generating central tolerance is unclear. We now show that costimulation blockade using a donor-specific transfusion and anti-CD154 antibody applied to mice given bone marrow and simultaneously transplanted with skin allografts leads to hematopoietic chimerism and permanent skin allograft survival. Chimeric mice bearing intact skin allografts fail to generate effectormemory T cells against allogeneic targets as shown by the absence of IFN?-producing CD44highCD8T cells and in vivocytotoxicity. Depletion of Tregs by injection of anti-CD4 or anti-CD25 antibody prior to costimulation blockade prevents chimerism, shortens skin allograft survival and leads to generation of effectormemory cytotoxic T cells. Depletion of Tregs by injection of anti-CD4 or anti-CD25 antibody two months after transplantation leads to loss of skin allografts even though mice remain chimeric and exhibit little in vivocytotoxicity. In contrast, chimerism is lost, but skin allografts survive following naïve T-cell injection. We conclude that hematopoietic chimerism and peripheral tolerance may be maintained by different mechanisms in mixed hematopoietic chimeras.

Costimulatory signals regulate T‐cell activation. To investigate the role of costimulation in autoimmunity and transplantation, we studied the BB rat model of type 1 diabetes. Diabetes‐prone BB (BBDP) rats spontaneously develop disease when 55–120 days of age. We observed that two anti‐CD28 monoclonal antibodies (mAb) with different functional activities completely prevented diabetes in BBDP rats. Anti‐CD154 mAb delayed diabetes, whereas treatment with CTLA4‐Ig or anti‐CD80 mAb accelerated disease. Anti‐CD86 or anti‐CD134L mAbs had no effect. Diabetes resistant BB (BBDR) rats are disease‐free, but >95% of them develop diabetes after treatment with polyinosinic‐polycytidylic acid and an mAb that depletes Treg cells. In the induced BBDR model, anti‐CD154 mAb delayed onset of diabetes, whereas CTLA4‐Ig, anti‐CD134L or either of the anti‐CD28 mAbs had little or no effect. In contrast, blockade of the CD134‐CD134L pathway was highly effective for preventing autoimmune recurrence against syngeneic islet grafts in diabetic BBDR hosts. Blockade of the CD40‐CD154 pathway was also effective, but less so. These data suggest that the effectiveness of costimulation blockade in the treatment of type 1 diabetes is dependent on both the costimulatory pathway targeted and the mechanism of induction, stage, intensity and duration of the pathogenic process.

The c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signal transduction pathway is activated in response to the exposure of cells to environmental stress. Components of the JNK signaling pathway interact with the JIP1 scaffold protein. JIP1 is located in the neurites of primary hippocampal neurons. However, in response to stress, JIP1 accumulates in the soma together with activated JNK and phosphorylated c-Jun. Disruption of the Jip1 gene in mice by homologous recombination prevented JNK activation caused by exposure to excitotoxic stress and anoxic stress in vivo and in vitro. These data show that the JIP1 scaffold protein is a critical component of a MAP-kinase signal transduction pathway.

We describe the induction of autoimmune diabetes, insulitis, and thyroiditis in athymic rats following injections of major histocompatibility complex compatible spleen cells. Lymphocytes with these capabilities were found in normal rats of the YOS, WAG, PVG, and diabetes-resistant BB strains, and in diabetes-prone BB rats. Adoptive transfer was facilitated by prior in vivo depletion of RT6.1+ regulatory T cells and in vitro mitogen activation of donor spleen cells. By RT6 depleting diabetes-resistant donors and using nude recipients, transfer of diabetes and thyroiditis was accomplished by using fresh, unstimulated spleen cells. The data suggest that organ-specific autoreactive cells may be present to various degrees but suppressed to a variable extent in many rat strains. The equilibrium between autoreactive and regulatory cells appears to determine the expression of autoimmunity.

Combined treatment with allogeneic small lymphocytes or T-depleted small lymphocytes plus a blocking antibody to CD40 ligand (CD40L) permitted indefinite pancreatic islet allograft survival in 37 of 40 recipients that differed from islet donors at major and minor histocompatibility loci. The effect of the allogeneic small lymphocytes was donor antigen-specific. Neither treatment alone was as effective as combined treatment, although anti-CD40L by itself allowed indefinite islet allograft survival in 40% of recipients. Our interpretation is that small lymphocytes expressing donor antigens in the absence of appropriate costimulatory signals are tolerogenic for alloreactive host cells. Anti-CD40L antibody may prevent host T cells from inducing costimulatory signals in donor lymphocytes or islet grafts.

Essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency exerts a striking protective effect in several animal models of autoimmune disease. We now report that EFA deprivation prevents diabetes in the BB rat, an animal model of human insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. In diabetes-prone (DP)-BB rats, the incidences of spontaneous diabetes and insulitis (the pathological substrate of autoimmune diabetes) were greatly reduced by EFA deficiency. This beneficial effect of the deficiency state was also seen in diabetes-resistant (DR)-BB rats that, after treatment with antibody to eliminate RT6+ T cells, would otherwise have become diabetic. The susceptibility of EFA-deprived DP-BB rats to spontaneous diabetes was restored when they were given dietary supplements of linoleate at 70 d of age (during the usual period of susceptibility), but not when they were repleted beginning at 120 d (after the peak incidence of diabetes). EFA deficiency did lead to growth retardation, but calorically restricted control rats demonstrated that the protective effect of the deficiency state was not a function of decreased weight. To examine the relationship between the biochemical changes of EFA deficiency and its physiological effects in this system, we compared the fatty acid changes that occurred in EFA-deficient animals that did and did not develop diabetes. Nondiabetic animals had significantly lower levels of (n-6) fatty acids (i.e., linoleate and arachidonate) and higher levels of oleate, an (n-9) fatty acid, than did diabetic animals. Levels of 20:3(n-9), the fatty acid that uniquely characterizes EFA deficiency, were similar in both groups, however. Among diabetic EFA-deficient rats, the age at onset of diabetes was found to correlate inversely with the level of (n-6) fatty acids, the least depleted animals becoming diabetic earliest, whereas there was no correlation with levels of 20:3(n-9). Among animals repleted with linoleate beginning at 70 d, restoration of susceptibility to diabetes correlated with normalization of the level of arachidonate. In summary, EFA deprivation reduced the frequency of diabetes in both DP and RT6-depleted DR-BB rats. This protective effect was strongly associated with depletion of (n-6) fatty acids, particularly arachidonate, but not with accumulation of the abnormal 20:3(n-9). Conjecturally, arachidonate and/or a metabolite may play a key role in mediating inflammatory injury in this animal model of autoimmune diabetes.

Rat RT6 proteins, and perhaps mouse Rt6, identify a set of immunoregulatory T lymphocytes. Rat RT6.1 (RT6.1) and rat RT6.2 (RT6. 2) are NAD glycohydrolases, which catalyze auto-ADP-ribosylation, but not ADP-ribosylation of exogenous proteins. Mouse Rt6.1 (mRt6.1) also catalyzes auto-ADP-ribosylation. The activity of mouse cytotoxic T lymphocytes is reportedly inhibited by ADP-ribosylation of surface proteins, raising the possibility that mRt6 may participate in this process. The reactions catalyzed by mRt6, would, however, need to be more diverse than those of the rat homologues and include the ADP-ribosylation of acceptors other than itself. To test this hypothesis, mRt6.1 and rat RT6.2 were synthesized in Sf9 insect cells and rat mammary adenocarcinoma (NMU) cells. mRt6.1, but not rat RT6.2, catalyzed the ADP-ribosylation of guanidino-containing compounds (e.g. agmatine). Unlike RT6.2, mRt6.1 was a weak NAD glycohydrolase. In the presence of agmatine, however, the ratio of [adenine-14C]ADP-ribosylagmatine formation from [adenine-14C]NAD to [carbonyl-14C]nicotinamide formation from [carbonyl-14C]NAD was approximately 1.0, demonstrating that mRt6.1 is primarily a transferase. ADP-ribosylarginine hydrolase, which preferentially hydrolyzes the alpha-anomer of ADP-ribosylarginine, released [U-14C]arginine from ADP-ribosyl[U-14C]arginine synthesized by mRT6.1, consistent with the conclusion that mRt6.1 catalyzes a stereospecific Sn2-like reaction. Thus, mRt6.1 is an NAD:arginine ADP-ribosyltransferase capable of catalyzing a multiple turnover, stereospecific Sn2-like reaction.

To investigate the role of RT6+ T cells in the pathogenesis of diabetes in BB/W rats, we treated animals from the diabetes-resistant (DR) subline with anti-RT6.1 lymphocytotoxic mAb. This depleted greater than 95% of peripheral RT6+ T cells but did not substantially reduce levels of circulating T cells or the in vitro response of spleen cells to mitogen. Treatment of 30-d-old DR BB/W rats in this way: induced insulitis and diabetes, rendered nondiabetic RT6-depleted DR rats susceptible to the adoptive transfer of diabetes by spleen cells from acutely diabetic BB/W rats, and yielded DR spleen cell populations capable of the adoptive transfer of diabetes to diabetes-prone (DP) or DR recipients. Treatment of DR rats beginning at 60 d of age failed to produce these effects. These results suggest that both susceptibility and resistance to diabetes in the BB/W rat are in part regulated by the RT6+ T cell subset and provide evidence for the importance of regulatory T lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and diabetes in BB/W rats.

Prophylactic insulin administration is known to prevent hyperglycaemia in diabetes prone BB rats and non-obese diabetic mice. This study investigated the effect of insulin treatment on the development of overt diabetes, clinically inapparent anti-islet autoreactivity, and thyroiditis in RT6-depleted diabetes resistant BB rats. Fewer than 1% of these animals develop spontaneous diabetes, but if depleted of RT6+T cells >50% become hyperglycaemic. We treated 30-day-old diabetes resistant rats with anti-RT6.1 monoclonal antibody, exogenous insulin, or both. Up to 60 days of age, 16 of 20 rats given antibody alone became diabetic, compared with 1 of 20 also treated with antibody plus insulin. Up to 110 days of age, only 1 of 10 rats treated with both insulin and antibody between 30 and 60 days became diabetic. Histologic study of non-diabetic insulin plus anti-RT6 antibody treated rats revealed insulitis in 3 of 9 at 60 days old, and insulitis in 3 of 8 and thyroiditis in 6 of 7 at 110 days of age. Non-diabetic animals were also found to harbour autoreactive spleen cells that adoptively transferred diabetes. Splenocytes from 60 or 110-day-old non-diabetic donors that had been treated with insulin and antibody between 30 and 60 days of age induced diabetes in 7 of 13 and 6 of 8 adoptive recipients respectively. We conclude that insulin treatment prevents clinical diabetes in the RT6-depleted diabetes resistant BB rat, but this treatment does not prevent the development of autoreactive cell populations that cause thyroiditis and adoptively transfer diabetes.

Transfusions of spleen cells are known to prevent spontaneous autoimmune diabetes in susceptible BB/W rats, while T cell-depleted transfusions are ineffective. To characterize further the protective cell(s), we transfused young diabetes prone rats with splenocytes from diabetes resistant BB/W rats that were treated in vitro to enrich them in either OX8+(suppressor/cytotoxic) T cells or W3/25+(helper/inducer) T cells. Diabetes subsequently occurred in 19 of 29 (66%) recipients of OX8-enriched, W3/25-depleted cells and 20 of 37 (54%) controls, but in only 7 of 30 (23%) recipients of W3/25-enriched, OX8-depleted cells (p<0.005). Transfusion of spleen cells from diabetes resistant donor rats pretreated in vivo to deplete OX8+cells also prevented diabetes in susceptible BB/W recipients. We conclude that transfusions of W3/25+helper/inducer splenic T lymphocytes obtained from diabetes resistant animals prevent spontaneous diabetes in the BB/W rat.