Tracking immunological responses of islet antigen-specific T cells in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse model of type 1 diabetes

Abstract

Tracking autoreactive cells in vivo is important in the study of autoimmune diseases, such as type 1 diabetes. This method provides a model to study the responses of T cells responding to physiologically relevant and organ-specific antigen. Intracellular fluorescent tracers are useful tools to identify adoptively transferred T cells. Firstly, they provide a unique fluorescent signal to distinguish adoptively transferred from endogenous cells. Secondly, cytoplasmic dyes can be used to evaluate proliferation, as the fluorescent intensity is halved with each round of cell division. This provides an important readout to assess cell activation and function.