Oral Administration of Cholera Toxin B-Insulin Conjugates Protects NOD Mice From Autoimmune Diabetes by Inducing CD4+ Regulatory T-cells

摘要

Restoration of peripheral tolerance to target autoanti- gens during autoimmuen diseases has met with several limitations because of the limited efficacy of this approach in an already immune host. To optimize the induction of tolerance, we have shown that feeding insulin conjugated to cholera toxin B-subunit (CTB), a potent mucosal adjuvant, reduced by 5,000 the amounts of antigen necessary for delaying diabetes onset in NOD mice. To analyze these protective mechanisms, we Have performed cotransfer experiments using spleno- Cytes from young females fed once with 10 μg of CTB- Insulin, mixed with diabetogenic -T-cels, and intra- Venously injected into irradiated syngeneic male recip- Ients.