A major problem for understanding and treating type1 diabetes is that we are unable to directly, but non-invasively, visualize the inflammatory lesions in the pancreas that cause the disease. In a study appearing online on August 18 in advance of print publication of the September 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Diane Mathis and colleagues from Joslin diabetes Center describe a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strategy to non-invasively monitor autoimmune inflammation in the pancreas of a living animal.
The researchers were able to track the pancreatic islet infiltrate that accompanies autoimmune diabetes in mice, and follow the resolution of inflammation after successful reversal of diabetes with therapy. This new imaging strategy provides preclinical data on mouse models of Type-1 diabetes that can guide the application of an in vivo MRI technique to patients with autoimmune diabetes.
Title: Seeing autoimmunity - noninvasive imaging of type 1 diabetes and its reversal
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Diane Mathis
Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA USA
Phone: 617-264-2701; Fax: 617-264-2744; E-mail: Diane.Mathis@joslin.harvard.edu
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=25048
Journal of Clinical Investigation