Heterogeneity and Lobularity of Pancreatic Pathology in Type 1 Diabetes during the Prediabetic Phase

In this report, we studied pancreas tissue from a 22-year-old non-diabetic male cadaveric organ donor who had been at high risk of developing T1D, in which autoantibodies against GAD and IA-2 were detected. Pancreas sections were analyzed for signs of inflammation. Multiple insulin-containing islets were identified, which hyper-expressed MHC-I. However, islet density and MHC-I expression exhibited a highly lobular and heterogeneous pattern even within the same section. In addition, many islets with high expression of MHC-I presented higher levels of CD8 T cell infiltration than normal islets. These results demonstrate the heterogeneity of human pathology that occurs early during the pre-diabetic, autoantibody positive phase, and should contribute to the understanding of human T1D.

Source: Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry - July 27, 2015 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Rodriguez-Calvo, T., Suwandi, J. S., Amirian, N., Zapardiel-Gonzalo, J., Anquetil, F., Sabouri, S., von Herrath, M. G. Tags: Articles Source Type: research