Long-term abrogation of autoimmune diabetes in nonobese diabetic mice by immunotherapy with anti-lymphocyte serum.

We investigated the therapeutic effect of anti-lymphocyte serum (ALS) on clinically overt diabetes by using a nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse model of type I diabetes mellitus. ALS given within 14 days of disease onset gradually reversed hyperglycemia with a 76% cumulative incidence of remission. Combined use of anti-CD4 and anti-CD8 monoclonal antibodies, but not anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 antibody alone, was also effective with overall 64% remission. Diabetic NOD mice that failed to respond to ALS treatment accepted subsequent islet isografts for a prolonged period (mostly greater than 100 days), whereas islet isografts in diabetic NOD mice previously treated with normal rabbit serum were all destroyed as acutely as isografts in untreated diabetic NOD mice. These results suggest that persistence of diabetes was due to irreversible beta-cell destruction and that ALS has indeed abrogated autoimmunity. In addition, ALS treatment at the time of islet isografting achieved significant prolongation of graft survival with 8 of 13 mice maintaining euglycemia for greater than 100 days. Although ALS prolonged islet allograft survival in diabetic NOD mice, the degree of prolongation was much less for allografts than for isografts, suggesting that ALS is capable of suppressing autoimmunity more effectively than allograft responses.