The effect of immunizing healthy individuals with either tetanus toxoid or yellow fever live attenuated vaccine was examined by measuring interferon (IFN)-dependent oligoadenylate synthetase (2-5A) activity. This enzyme converts ATP into oligonucleotides coupled together in 2'-5' diester bonds. The synthetized products possess among other effects growth inhibiting properties and stimulate a latent

Dithizone, a zinc chelating agent, is known to selectively stain the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. In the present study, we have used this stain to aid the identification of islets in material obtained by collagenase digestion of human pancreas. Islets were shown to rapidly and reversibly stain red on incubation with dithizone solution. Tissue selected on the basis of dithizone staining wa

Increased levels of circulating immune complexes (IC) have been described in insulin-dependent diabetic (IDD) patients at the time of diagnosis. The aim of the present study was to test whether the spontaneously diabetic BB rat had changes in IC levels at different ages prior to and at onset of IDDM as compared with diabetes resistant BB rats and normal Wistar Furth rats. The IC levels were relate

The HLA-DQ β-chain gene shows a close association with susceptibility or resistance to autoimmune insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and it has been suggested that the amino acid in position 57 may be of pathogenetic importance. To study the expression of the IDDM associated HLA-DQ β-chain alleles, we immunized rabbits with 12 to 13 amino acid long peptides representing HLA-DQw7 and -DQw8

The majority (about 90%) of children developing Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus do not have a first-degree relative with the disease. Nearly all (389/405, 96%) children (0-14 years) in Sweden, who developed diabetes during one year, were therefore studied to compare islet cell, thyroid peroxidase, thyroglobulin, and gastric H+, K+-ATPase antibodies with 321 age, sex, and geographicall

Basal and yellow fever vaccination-induced 2',5'-oligoadenylate synthetase (2',5'A) activity was determined in blood mononuclear cells (peripheral blood lymphocytes [PBLs]) from insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and matched control subjects. The live attenuated yellow fever vaccine represented a primary stimulus in all subjects. First, basal 2',5'A activity increased several-fold in respo

Immunocytochemistry combined with morphometry was used to test the hypothesis that insulitis and diabetes are preceded by quantitative changes in the pancreas of diabetes-prone BB (DPBB) rats. Diabetes-resistant BB (DRBB) rats of the w-subline served as controls. In the first part of the study rats aged 15, 30,45, and 60 days were studied. At 60 days preceding both insulitis and onset of diabetes,

The insulin-producing rat islet tumor cell line, RIN-5AH, expresses somatogen binding sites and responds to GH by increased proliferation and insulin production. Affinity cross-linking shows that RIN-5AH cells contain two major GH-binding subunits of Mr 100-130K (110K), which appear to exist as disulfide-linked multimers of Mr 270-350K (300K). In addition, a minor Mr 180K GH-binding protein is ide

The pluripotent rat islet tumor cell line MSL-G2 expresses primarily glucagon or cholecystokinin and not insulin in vitro but changes phenotype completely after prolonged in vivo cultivation to yield small-sized hypoglycemic tumors composed almost entirely of insulin-producing beta cells. When a genomic DNA fragment containing the coding and upstream regulatory regions of the human insulin gene wa

Cross-culture contamination of cell lines propagated in continuous culture is a frequent event and particularly difficult to resolve in cells expressing similar phenotypes. We demonstrate that DNA-DNA hybridization to blotted endonuclease-digested cell DNA effectively detects cross-culture contamination to monitor inter-species as well as intra-species cross contamination. An insulin-producing cel

The effect of secretin on glucagon and insulin release and its interaction with glucose has been studied in cultured mouse pancreatic islets by column perifusion. Glucose alone showed the well-known stimulation of insulin release and inhibition of glucagon release. Addition of 10 mM secretin increased glucagon secretion at 3 mM d-glucose by 300% while no change in insulin release could be seen at

Secretin and glucagon potentiate glucose-induced insulin release. We have compared the effects of secretin and glucagon with that of four hybrid molecules of the two hormones on insulin release and formation of cyclic AMP (cAMP) in isolated mouse pancreatic islets. All six peptides potentiated the release of insulin at 10mM D-glucose, and their effects were indistinguishable with respect to the dy

Neonatal insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) occurs rarely. A sibship of two HLA-Dw314-positive boys who developed IDDM within the 1st wk of life is described. Although the HLA-D region genotype would be consistent with IDDM associated with islet autoimmunity, islet cell antibodies were negative, but both boys exhibited the presence of a novel autoantibody that reacted specifically with a c

The acute effects of recombinant human interleukin-1 beta (rIL-1) on basal and glucose-stimulated insulin release were investigated in the isolated perfused pancreas. At a concentration of 20 μg/l rIL-1 had no effect on basal insulin release, but increased the total amount of insulin released during first and second phase insulin release in response to 20 mmol/l D-glucose in the rat pancreas (P <