ANALYSIS OF PATHOGENESIS OF AUTOIMMUNE INSULITIS IN NOD MICE - ADOPTIVE TRANSFER EXPERIMENTS OF INSULITIS IN ILI AND NOD NUDE-MICE

In an effort to study the pathophysiological events in the development of insulitis in NOD mice, we have developed ILI- and NOD-nu/nu mice, ILI mice are a nondiabetic inbred strain but are derived from the same Jcl:ICR mouse as NOD mice and share the same H-2 allotype with NOD mi ce. Splenocytes and CD4 cells from diabetic NOD mice appeared to trans fer insulitis to ILI-nu/nu mice, suggesting that ILI mice already expr ess autoantigen(s) responsible for insulitis. But reciprocal thymic gr afts from NOD mice into ILI-nu/nu mice and those from ILI mice into NO D-nu/nu mice failed to allow the development of insulitis, implying th at ILI mice possess neither precursor T cells nor the thymic environme nt responsible for the development of insulitis. In addition, splenocy tes from ILI mice appeared to contain regulatory cells which suppress the development of diabetes but not that of insulitis in NOD mice, The use of these nude mice should provide more information on the product s of insulitis-susceptibility genes of NOD mice.