BETA-CELL REST - A STRATEGY FOR THE PREVENTION OF AUTOIMMUNE DIABETES

An autoantigen being recognized by specific receptors is the key react ion of an autoimmune disease. Whereas much efforts have been made to d evelop immunosuppressive regimens which reduce the amount of effector cells, and/or inhibit receptor activation, surprisingly little attenti on has been paid to reduce the ligand-receptor interaction by interfer ing with the amount of antigen being presented from the target cells. In this review, we discuss clinical observations in autoimmune endocri ne disease which illustrate that target cell alterations can modify th e disease activity and comment on recent clinical trials which indicat e that beta-cell rest may be beneficial to the course of human autoimm une diabetes mellitus.