Aberrant activation of CD8+ T-cell and CD8+ T-cell subsets in patients with newly diagnosed IDDM.

Two- and three-color cytofluorimetric techniques were used to study the expression patterns of the activation antigen HLA-DR on peripheral blood immunoregulatory T-cells from 25 patients with newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and 14 age- and sex-matched control subjects. The mean percentage of total activated (CD3+HLA-DR+) T-cells was significantly elevated in the IDDM group compared with the control group (P < 0.001). In control subjects, basal activation of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes accounted for the low percentage levels of activated T-cells. In contrast, the majority of IDDM patients showed an unbalanced activation of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes with predominant activation of the CD8+ lymphocyte subset. The composition of the activated T-cell fraction was dependent on the composition of the total (activated + nonactivated) T-cell population, as indicated by the positive correlation between the CD4+/CD8+ T-cell ratios in these two cell populations (r = 0.714; P < 0.001). Excessive activation of CD8+ T-cells was attributable to similar increases in the proportions of CD8+ CD45RA+HLA-DR+ (naive) and CD8+CD45RA-HLA-DR+ (memory) cells. Analysis of the CD11b-defined subsets revealed predominant activation of CD8+ CD11b- (cytotoxic) T-cells; CD8+ CD16+ HLA-DR+ natural killer cells were unchanged. The distribution of HLA-DR+ cells among subsets of CD4+ T-cells differed from the pattern in the CD8+ population in that selective activation of CD4+ CD45RA- (memory, helper-inducer) cells accounted for the small increase in activated CD4+ cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The frequency of disturbances of somatic development in young people with type I diabetes in dependence on duration and age at onset of the disease.

The height, weight and menarche of children and young people treated in the Children's Clinic as in-patients in 1987 was determined in dependence on the age at onset of diabetes and the duration of the disease, and the frequency of the disturbances of somatic development were shown. A growth retardation was registered in 1.8% only while the frequency of obesity amounted to 10%; 13.9% in female and 6.3% in male type I diabetics. However, the overall percentage of obesity in diabetics does not differ significantly from that in healthy subjects of corresponding age. With a higher age of onset, the frequency of adiposity increased significantly in both sexes; the highest frequency was shown by the girls who contracted the disease between the ages of 10 and 14. While the frequency of adiposity decreased significantly in male patients with increasing duration of diabetes, a non-significant increase was observed in female probands. There was no connection between adiposity and insulin dosage. The mean age for menarche in diabetic girls was determined at 13.4 years. The greatest, non-significant delay was experienced by those where onset of diabetes was between the ages of 5 and 9. The reason for this retardation is presumably the quality of the metabolism.