Suspect in cause of diabetes caught red handed and in action
Researchers and scientists out of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered a very distinct and precise action of the immune cells that can cause diabetes.
Researchers were able to examine the immune cells from isolated insulin-making structures in the pancreas known as the islets of Langerhans. They caught the immune cells, known as dendritic cells, “red-handed”: Carrying insulin and fragments of insulin-producing cells known as beta cells. This can be the first step toward starting a misdirected immune system attack that destroys the beta cells, preventing the body from making insulin and causing type 1 diabetes.
Due to dendritic cells being very tiny and minimal in numbers, only about 5 to 10 of them per islet, each of which contains a thousand cells, it has been tough to isolate this in the past.
The findings here that are distinct…
“We think these dendritic cells aren’t in the pancreas by accident,” says Unanue. “We believe that in the normal individual they help maintain the health of beta cells. But in a person with autoimmune diabetes, they appear to start the problems that destroy beta cells.”
These findings are a big deal and will further research in the treatment of diabetes.
via Washington Univ. School of Medicine
Tags: autoimmune cells, beta cells, dendritic cells, Diabetes, disease, Research
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