Hypophysitis in non-obese diabetic mice as a new tissue- specific autimmune response.

MORENO-SOSA MT; SOAJE M; SANCHEZ MB; VALDEZ SR; YUDICA-SEDANO F; NEIRA FJ; PENNACCHIO GE; PIETROBON EO; JAHN GA; MACKERN OBERTI JP

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias; 2017

Reunión Conjunta de Sociedades de Biociencias

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a chronic organ-specific autoimmune disease that results from the destruction of beta (β) cells in the pancreatic islets and shows a pronounced leukocyte infiltration in the gland. Non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice develop autoimmune diabetes approximately at 6 months of age in females, providing an experimental model for human Type 1 Diabetes. They also display additional autoreactive immune responses against other glands including the prostate and thyroid. Furthermore, female NOD mice exhibit a lower fertility index compared to wild type mice, that develops approximately at the same time as diabetes. To determine whether the low fertility of NOD mice is caused by an autoimmune response against the hypophysis, we assessed the presence of leukocyte infiltration in the gland. To this end, the presence of CD45+ (panleukocyte) cells in the hypophysis of 3 and 6 months old female BALB/c (control group) and NOD mice was analyzed by flow cytometry. An increase in leukocyte infiltration in the hypophysis from 6 months old NOD mice was observed compared to the controls (0.05±0.04 % BALB/c mice vs 3.2±1.0% NOD mice; p