LYMPH-NODE T-CELLS DO NOT OPTIMALLY TRANSFER DIABETES IN NOD MICE

The nonobese diabetic mouse is a model of spontaneous development of a utoimmune type I diabetes. The disease can be induced in young, irradi ated recipients by injecting splenic T-cells from diabetic donors. The adoptive transfer of diabetes requires the presence of both CD4+ and CD8+ splenic T-cell subsets. To test whether diabetogenic cells distri bute in other lymphoid organs of diabetic mice, we first analyzed lymp h node cells. Lymph node cells were much less efficient in transferrin g diabetes than splenocytes. This inefficacious transfer was not attri butable to the absence of hematopoietic precursors or a lack of macrop hages. Lymph node cells did not protect form the transfer was not sple nocytes, indicating the absence of suppressor cells. Although CD8+ lym ph node T-cells seemed functionally comparable to CD8+ splenocytes. CD 4+ lymph node T-cells failed to cooperate with CD8+ splenocytes to tra nsfer diabetes. Our study suggests that diabetogenic cells are not eve nly distributed in the different lymphoid organs. This may reflect a d ifferential migration pattern of pathogenic T-cells in this animal mod el.