[The immunopathology of type I diabetes mellitus]. / Immunopathologia del diabete mellito di tipo I.

ABSTRACT

The onset of type I diabetes is preceded by a prodromic phase during which, despite the absence of symptoms, the beta-cell mass decreases as a result of an autoimmune process. In this review we discuss the importance of environmental and genetic factors, and abnormalities of humoral and cellular immunity in the development of autoimmune process toward pancreatic beta cells. The resulting immunological network involves monocytes activation, interleukin-1 secretion, T-lymphocyte activation, secretion of interleukin-2 and other lymphokines which activate cytotoxic cells to induce beta-cell lysis.