| First Author | Culina S | Year | 2015 |
| Journal | Diabetes | Volume | 64 |
| Issue | 10 | Pages | 3532-42 |
| PubMed ID | 25918233 | Mgi Jnum | J:247168 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5922821 | Doi | 10.2337/db15-0024 |
| Citation | Culina S, et al. (2015) Materno-Fetal Transfer of Preproinsulin Through the Neonatal Fc Receptor Prevents Autoimmune Diabetes. Diabetes 64(10):3532-42 |
| abstractText | The first signs of autoimmune activation leading to beta-cell destruction in type 1 diabetes (T1D) appear during the first months of life. Thus, the perinatal period offers a suitable time window for disease prevention. Moreover, thymic selection of autoreactive T cells is most active during this period, providing a therapeutic opportunity not exploited to date. We therefore devised a strategy by which the T1D-triggering antigen preproinsulin fused with the immunoglobulin (Ig)G Fc fragment (PPI-Fc) is delivered to fetuses through the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) pathway, which physiologically transfers maternal IgGs through the placenta. PPI-Fc administered to pregnant PPIB15-23 T-cell receptor-transgenic mice efficiently accumulated in fetuses through the placental FcRn and protected them from subsequent diabetes development. Protection relied on ferrying of PPI-Fc to the thymus by migratory dendritic cells and resulted in a rise in thymic-derived CD4(+) regulatory T cells expressing transforming growth factor-beta and in increased effector CD8(+) T cells displaying impaired cytotoxicity. Moreover, polyclonal splenocytes from nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice transplacentally treated with PPI-Fc were less diabetogenic upon transfer into NOD.scid recipients. Transplacental antigen vaccination provides a novel strategy for early T1D prevention and, further, is applicable to other immune-mediated conditions. |
