Dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapy has been effective for prevention of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in NOD mice but fails to protect if initiated after active autoimmunity. As autoreactivity expands inter- and intramolecularly during disease progression, we investigated whether DCs unpulsed or pulsed with β cell antigenic dominant determinants (DD), subdominant determinants (SD), and ignored determinants (ID) could prevent T1D in mice with advanced insulitis. We found that diabetes was significantly delayed by DC therapy. Of interest, DCs pulsed with SD or ID appeared to provide better protection. T lymphocytes from DC-treated mice acquired spontaneous proliferating capability during in vitro culture, which could be largely eliminated by IL-2 neutralizing antibodies. This trend maintained even 29 weeks after discontinuing DC therapy and appeared antigen-independent.
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Lo J, Xia CQ, Peng R, Clare-Salzler MJ. Immature Dendritic Cell Therapy Confers Durable Immune Modulation in an Antigen-Dependent and Antigen-Independent Manner in Nonobese Diabetic Mice. J Immunol Res. 2018 Feb 14;2018:5463879. doi: 10.1155/2018/5463879. eCollection 2018.