Evidence for in vivo primed and expanded autoreactive T cells as a specific feature of patients with type 1 diabetes

Identifying beta cell autoantigen-reactive T cells that are involved in the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes has been troublesome for many laboratories. Disease-relevant autoreactive T cells should be in vivo Ag experienced. The aim of this study was to test this hypothesis and then use this principle as a strategy for identifying diabetes-relevant autoreactive T cells. In this study, a CSFE dilution assay was used to detect glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65)- and insulin-responsive T cells and HLA-0201*GAD(65114-112) pentamers were used to detect CD8(+) GAD-responsive T cells in memory CD45R0(+) and naive CD45R0(-) cell populations from patients with type 1 diabetes and healthy control subjects. T cell proliferative history was evaluated by flow cytometry telomere length measurement. CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells specific for GAD65 and insulin were present in patients with type 1 diabetes and control subjects. Within the naive CD45R0- cells, CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses were similar between patients and controls. Within the memory CD45R0+ cells, CD4(+) T cell responses against whole GAD65 and insulin and HLA0201*-GAD(65114-122) pentamer-positive CD8(+) T cells were found in patients with type 1 diabetes, but not in control subjects (p < 0.05 for all). Responding cells from the CD45R0(+) T cell population had substantially shorter telomere lengths than responding cells from the CD45R0- cell population. Diabetes-specific autoreactive T cells in the circulation have uniquely undergone sustained in vivo proliferation and differentiation into memory T cells. Prior selection of these cells is possible and is a way to identify diabetes-relevant target Ags and epitopes.