Immunologists Find Mysterious Insulin Peptide.(Brief Article)

Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)Type 1 is perpetrated by an attack of the body's own immune system on the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. This onslaught is led by T lymphocytes, along with macrophages and B cells, which perceive the insulin as hostile to the body, and proceed to terminate the hormone completely. Determining which specific T-cell subset recognizes insulin as an alien antigen would go far toward improving therapy for Type I diabetes, perhaps by a vaccine. A paper in the September 1999 issue of Nature Medicine, titled "Identification of an MHC (major histocompatibility] class I-restricted autoantigen in type I diabetes by …