Abstract
The autoimmune diabetic syndrome of the BioBreeding diabetes-prone (BBDP) rat is a polygenic disease that resembles in many aspects human type 1 diabetes (T1D). A successful approach to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying genetic associations in autoimmune diseases has been to identify and map disease-related subphenotypes that are under simpler genetic control than the full-blown disease. In this study, we focused on the β cell overexpression of Ccl11 (Eotaxin), previously postulated to be diabetogenic in BBDR rats, a BBDP-related strain. We tested the hypothesis that this trait is genetically determined and contributes to the regulation of diabetes in BBDP rats. Similar to the BBDR strain, we observed a time-dependent, insulitis-independent pancreatic upregulation of Ccl11 in BBDP rats when compared with T1D-resistant ACI.1u.lyp animals. Through linkage analysis of a cross-intercross of these two parental strains, this trait was mapped to a region on chromosome 12 that overlaps Iddm30. Linkage results were confirmed by phenotypic assessment of a novel inbred BBDP.ACI-Iddm30 congenic line. As expected, the Iddm30 BBDP allele is associated with a significantly higher pancreatic expression of Ccl11; however, the same allele confers resistance to T1D. Analysis of islet-infiltrating T cells in Iddm30 congenic BBDP animals revealed that overexpression of pancreatic Ccl11, a prototypical Th2 chemokine, is associated with an enrichment in Th2 CD4+ T cells within the insulitic lesions. These results indicate that, in the BBDP rat, Iddm30 controls T1D susceptibility through both the regulation of Ccl11 expression in β cells and the subsequent Th1/Th2 balance within islet-infiltrating T lymphocytes.