Novel autoantigens for diabetogenic CD4 T cells in autoimmune diabetes.

Autoreactive CD4 T cells play a central role in the development of type 1 diabetes. The BDC panel of diabetogenic T cell clones was originally isolated from non-obese diabetic mice and has been used to study the role of autoreactive CD4 T cells and T cell autoantigens in the development of diabetes. Recent studies by our group have led to the identification of two new target antigens for clones of this panel. This review describes the proteomic strategy used for antigen identification, the antigens identified, and the potential contribution of post-translational modification to autoantigen generation. In addition, we compare peptide epitopes for the T cell clones and discuss their potential applications in investigating the role of T cell autoantigens in the pathogenesis and regulation of disease.