Published in:
Open Access
01-07-2009 | Research Letter
Prevention of diabetes by a hydrolysed casein-based diet in diabetes-prone BioBreeding rats does not involve restoration of the defective natural regulatory T cell function
Authors:
J. Visser, J. L. Hillebrands, M. Walther Boer, N. A. Bos, J. Rozing
Published in:
Diabetologia
|
Issue 7/2009
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Excerpt
To the Editor: Diabetes-prone (DP)-BioBreeding (BB) rats show reduced natural regulatory T cell (nTreg; CD4
+/CD25
+/forkhead box P3 [FOXP3]
+) levels and function, and spontaneously develop type 1 diabetes from 70 days of age [
1,
2]. Adoptive transfers of nTregs from diabetes-resistant (DR)-BB rats to DP-BB rats prevents diabetes in DP-BB rats [
3,
4]. Environmental factors such as diet are critical triggers for the development of type 1 diabetes [
5]. Using the DP-BB rat model for type 1 diabetes, we and others have shown that a hydrolysed casein (HC)-based diet reduces the incidence of diabetes from 90% to 50%, and delays the mean time of diabetes onset [
5‐
8]. Reduced dietary diabetogenic triggers, skewing of immune responses and induction of islet neogenesis are thought to be the main mechanisms behind the effects of the HC-based diet [
5‐
8]. …