Video: Researchers Watch Type 1 Diabetes As It Unfolds, in Real Time

T Cells Attacking This image, captured from video, shows the T cells (purple dots) attacking the pancreatic islets (green images in center), which contain the insulin‑producing beta cells. Beta cell destruction leads to type 1 diabetes. The attack continues over several hours before a number of beta cells are destroyed. La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology

A new real-time view of immune cells attacking the pancreas sheds light on how type 1 diabetes unfolds, as white blood cells seek out and destroy insulin-producing beta cells. Researchers believe it could help point the way to new intervention methods to halt the destruction before the onset of type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes.

Diabetes results from the body’s lack of ability to produce sufficient insulin, which keeps blood glucose levels in check. Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder in which the body’s T lymphocytes attack and kill the pancreas’ insulin-making beta cells; type 2 also involves pancreatic destruction and can result from several factors, though in this country it is often the result of poor diet and obesity. There is no cure, at least not yet. Watching exactly how the destructive process unfolds could be a major step in that direction, however.

Researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology used two-photon excitation microscopy and a new imaging technique to access a live, functioning pancreas in a mouse. The pancreas is small, soft and tucked away beneath other organs in the abdominal area, so it’s difficult to see in action. This study marks the first time researchers have used two-photon microscopy to study the pancreas (it’s previously been used to image the liver, lymph nodes and some other organs).                   More