A diabetes-associated T-cell autoantigen maps to a telomeric locus on mouse chromosome 6.

Identification of diabetes-associated T-cell autoantigens is important for understanding the immunopathology of diabetes and developing improved therapeutic strategies. We have used a genetic approach to move toward identifying the autoantigen recognized by a diabetogenic islet-specific T-cell clone from a nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse. The unique antigen recognition pattern of this clone was utilized to map the gene encoding the antigen (or its expression) by genetic linkage analysis. In vitro analysis of T-cell proliferation by this clone showed that the capacity of the islets to stimulate T cells segregates as a single codominant gene in BALB/cByJ x (BALB/cByJ x NOD/Bdc) backcross mice. This phenotype was tightly linked to two microsatellites in the telomeric region of mouse chromosome 6.