Abstract

Patients with type 1 diabetes are treated with daily injections of human insulin, an autoantigen expressed in thymus. Natural CD4+CD25^high regulatory T-cells are derived from thymus, and accordingly human insulin–specific regulatory T-cells should exist. We had a chance to study peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from children with type 1 diabetes both before and after starting insulin treatment, and thus we could analyze the effects of insulin treatment on regulatory T-cells in children with type 1 diabetes. PBMCs were stimulated for 72 h with bovine/human insulin. The mRNA expression of regulatory T-cell markers (transforming growth factor-β, Foxp3, cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 [CTLA-4], and inducible co-stimulator [ICOS]) or cytokines (γ-interferon [IFN-γ], interleukin [IL]-5, IL-4) was measured by quantitative RT-PCR. The secretion of IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10 was also studied. The expression of Foxp3, CTLA-4, and ICOS mRNAs in PBMCs stimulated with bovine or human insulin was higher in patients on insulin treatment than in patients studied before starting insulin treatment. The insulin-induced Foxp3 protein expression in CD4+CD25^high cells was detectable in flow cytometry. No differences were seen in cytokine activation between the patient groups. Insulin stimulation in vitro induced increased expression of regulatory T-cell markers, Foxp3, CTLA-4, and ICOS only in patients treated with insulin, suggesting that treatment with human insulin activates insulin-specific regulatory T-cells in children with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. This effect of the exogenous autoantigen could explain the difficulties to detect in vitro T-cell proliferation responses to insulin in newly diagnosed patients. Furthermore, autoantigen treatment–induced activation of regulatory T-cells may contribute to the clinical remission of the disease.