This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Noel K. Maclaren, MD

Am J Dis Child. 1977;131(10):1149-1154.

Abstract
• Pathologists have confirmed the specific nature of the insulitis lesion in diabetes requiring insulin. Data from genetic studies implicate both genetic and environmental influences as important in the appearance of overt disease. Certain HLA histocompatibility antigens are associated with insulin-dependent diabetes and have been interpreted as markers for closely linked immune response genes, a situation that may lead to beta cell susceptibility to viral injury or to uncontrolled beta cell autoaggression following beta cell damage. There is much circumstantial evidence that viruses may precipitate the disease (coxsackie) or may precede the disease onset by a long interval (mumps, rubella). However, susceptibility to virus, if it exists in human insulin-requiring diabetes, would appear on clinical grounds to be localized to the pancreas. Autoimmune phenomena are common in insulin-requiring diabetes, and there is both human and animal evidence that suggest that cell-mediated immunity may have a central pathogenic role. The recent explosion of new findings should lead to a clearer understanding of the nature of the disease, and this knowledge will hopefully lend itself to the prevention or arrest of the disease through immunological intervention, vaccination programs, or other means yet to be discovered.

(Am J Dis Child 131:1149-1154, 1977)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 685 W Baltimore St, Baltimore, MD 21201 (Dr Maclaren).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Diabetes Mellitus, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, and Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
FISHER et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 1980;134:93-94.
ABSTRACT