What is Immunology?
Immunology is the study of the immune system, which is responsible for protecting the body from foreign cells such as viruses, bacteria and parasites. Immune system cells called T and B
lymphocytes identify and destroy these invaders. The lymphocytes usually recognize and ignore the body’s own tissue (a condition called immunological self-tolerance), but certain autoimmune disorders trigger a malfunction in the immune response causing an attack on the body’s own cells due to a loss of immune tolerance.
Immunology and Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. This attack begins years before type 1 diabetes becomes evident, so by the time someone is diagnosed, extensive damage has already been done and the ability to produce insulin is lost.
It is unknown how and why diabetes causes a loss of immunological self-tolerance, but solving this mystery is important:
- Understanding this problem could lead to new prevention methods and reveal a way to intervene and rebuild immune tolerance early in the disease process.
- Islet transplantation and stem cell therapy hold great promise, but the success of both methods is limited by the need for immunosuppressive drugs to protect the new islet cells from immune attack.
Joslin Researchers Are Searching for Answers
- How does the immune system usually maintain immune tolerance and prevent autoimmune attack?
- How are molecular and cellular processes different in people with diabetes, and how do these differences trigger the disease?
- How can autoimmune attack and type 1 diabetes be detected early on? Is there a way to observe damage in the pancreas through advanced technology?
- Is it possible to prevent the autoimmune attack that triggers diabetes? Can immunological tolerance be restored?
JDRF Center on Immunological Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes
Two Joslin faculty members lead the JDRF Center on Immunological Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes at Harvard Medical School, a consortium of investigators from eight Boston institutions. The center’s mandate is to translate the most recent findings on animal models of diabetes as fast as possible to the human arena.
Most Commonly Used Terms
Autoimmune disease: disorder of the body’s immune system in which the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys body tissue considered foreign.
Islet cells: cells found within the pancreas, clustered in formations called islets. These cells make insulin and are also called pancreatic beta cells.
Lymphocytes: immune system cells that identify and destroy foreign agents such as viruses, bacteria and parasites.
For More Information:
Diabetes Triggers
Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics
Section on Islet Transplantation and Cell Biology
Section on Developmental and Stem Cell Biology
Joslin and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute
JDRF Center on Immunological Tolerance in Type-1 Diabetes at Harvard Medical School
