Cytoadherence of lymphocytes from type I diabetic subjects to insulin-secreting cells. Marker of anti-beta-cell cellular immunity.

We studied the ability of lymphocytes from type I (insulin-dependent) diabetic patients to adhere to murine beta-cells. Lymphocytes from 17 recent-onset type I diabetic subjects (less than 6 mo) displayed enhanced ability to form rosettes with RINm5F cells (P less than .001) compared with lymphocytes from 27 healthy subjects forming background rosettes, whereas the number of RIN cytoadherent lymphocytes was unimpaired in 12 type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic subjects. This phenomenon tended to decline in 21 subjects with long-standing diabetes (greater than 1 yr) who taken as a group presented a normal number of RIN rosetting lymphocytes. The islet specificity of these diabetic rosettes was confirmed because, compared with controls, lymphocytes from recent-onset type I diabetic subjects also displayed a greater intensity of adherence to normal mouse islets but not to unrelated K562 and TS cell lines. As demonstrated by indirect immunofluorescence studies, these diabetic rosettes contained 54% of T-lymphocytes (OKT3+, OKT4+, or OKT8+), whereas only 20% of T-lymphocytes were found in background rosettes. The high percentage (66%) of la+ cells found in diabetic rosettes suggests that at least some of the cytoadherent T-lymphocytes from recent-onset type I diabetic subjects are activated. Natural killer (NK) cells do not seem to be the major cell type implicated in this phenomenon, because Leu 11+ cells were less represented in diabetic rosettes (25%) than in background rosettes (53%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)