Streptozotocin-induced diabetes in athymic and conventional BALB/c mice.

Spleen cells from conventional BALB/c or athymic mice with streptozotocin (SZ)-induced hyperglycemia failed to raise blood sugar levels when injected into athymic or thymus-sufficient recipients. Passive transfer efforts were unsuccessful despite variations in donor-recipient pairs with respect to age, thymic function, or time after sensitization of donor mice. Athymic mice develop hyperglycemia following SZ but fail to mount an inflammatory lymphocyte infiltration. In contrast, the heterozygotes show a marked cellular response, which seems to follow the onset of hyperglycemia. The injection of spleen cells from thymus-sufficient mice to athymic recipients confers immunologic competence on the latter as tested by antibody formation to sheep erythrocytes.