The B-subunit of cholera toxin induces immunoregulatory cells and prevents diabetes in the NOD mouse.

The B-subunit of the cholera toxin molecule (CT-B) has T-cell immunomodulatory properties. Because the pathogenesis of diabetes in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse model of IDDM is thought to be a T-cell-mediated process due to an imbalance of immunoregulatory and anti-islet effector cells, we examined the effect of CT-B administration on the development of diabetes in the NOD mouse and assessed whether this potential diabetes-sparing effect of CT-B is mediated by changes in immunoregulatory and/or anti-islet cytotoxic effector cell activity. The administration of either intravenous or intraperitoneal CT-B decreased the development of diabetes with no apparent drug toxicity. At 6 months of age, only 18% of CT-B vs. 75% of saline-treated animals had diabetes. Histopathological examination revealed less islet atrophy in CT-B-treated animals. The in vitro proliferative responses of mononuclear splenocytes and thymocytes to concanavalin A and lipolysaccharide and the proportion of B-cells and T-cell subsets were not altered by CT-B treatment. CT-B administration did not inhibit the primary immunization of mice to tetanus toxoid. The development of diabetes in irradiated NOD mice was slower in the animals injected with spleen cells (SC) from CT-B-treated than from saline-treated NOD mice, suggesting that CT-B decreases anti-islet effector cell activity. The injection of SC from CT-B-treated mice inhibited the adoptive transfer of diabetes by SC from diabetic mice into irradiated NOD mice, documenting that CT-B administration induces regulatory cell activity. In conclusion, CT-B administration prevents the development of diabetes in NOD mice by inhibiting the immune destruction of islets. This islet-sparing activity appears mediated, at least in part, by the induction of regulatory cells and, in turn, suppression of anti-islet effector cells, which is not associated with generalized immunosuppression or T- or B-cell depletion.