Relationship between Immunological Abnormalities in Rat Models of Diabetes Mellitus and the Amplification Circuits for Diabetes

Table 1

Summary of immunological abnormalities in rat models of diabetes mellitus.

Cell type (subset)	Abnormality	Effect
Alloxan-induced diabetic rats (type 1 diabetes mellitus)
T cells	Reduced T cell proliferation	Downregulation of cellular immunity and humoral immunity
Monocyte/macrophage	Impaired phagocytosis	(Susceptibility to infection?)
DP-BB rat
CD4 helper T cells	T cell lymphopenia; (Reduction of TCR repertoire)	Increase of autoreactivity
Th1	Increase of ratio	Augmentation of cellular immunity
Th17	Increase of ratio	Augmentation of inflammation
CD8 cytotoxic T cells	Decrease in cell number; (Reduction in TCR repertoire)	Increase of autoreactivity
Zucker fatty (ZF) rats
T cells	Decrease in cell number; (CD4^+ and CD8^+)	Unknown; (Impaired response?)
B cells	Augmentation of immunoglobulin (IgM, IgA, and IgG) production	Unknown; (Autoreactive?)
Macrophages, (monocytes, dendritic cells)	Increase in cell number; Augmentation of nitric oxide production; Augmentation of inflammatory cytokine production	Augmentation of inflammatory responses
G-K rats
T cells	Increase in cell ratio; Th2 dominant	Unknown
B cells	Decrease in cell ratio; Augmentation of natural IgM production	Unknown; (Autoreactive?)
Monocytes	Attenuation of phagocytic activity	Unknown; (Susceptibility to infection)