Löhr M, Bergstrome B, Maekawa R, Oldstone MB, Klöppel G. Human cytomegalovirus in the pancreas of patients with type 2 diabetes: is there a relation to clinical features, mRNA and protein expression of insulin, somatostatin, and MHC class II?
ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 1993;
421:371-8. [PMID:
1360719 PMCID:
PMC7087593 DOI:
10.1007/bf01606908]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/29/2022]
Abstract
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) was recently demonstrated in the pancreas of about half the patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the absence of mumps, rubella or Coxsackie B virus. The present study addresses the question as to whether type 2 diabetes with an HCMV-positive pancreas differs from those with HCMV-negative pancreases with respect to age, sex, treatment, duration of disease, volume densities of B-cells and D-cells, mRNA levels of insulin and somatostatin, islet amyloid peptide deposits and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II gene transcription, and protein expression. HCMV-positive type 2 diabetic patients showed a tendency towards a shorter duration of disease and significantly increased levels of MHC class II on RNA. In addition, expression of MHC class II product (HLA-DR) was identified in duct epithelial cells and/or islet cells in 9 diabetic pancreases and in 2 non-diabetic glands. No MHC class I expression could be detected. No other clinical differences between HCMV-positive and HCMV-negative glands were found. All 10 HCMV-positive diabetics showed a strong expression of MHC class II mRNA in the pancreas. By immunocytochemistry, 4 of 10 demonstrated expression on the islets; three of ten also expressed MHC DR beta on ductal cells. This finding might be related to the viral infection, as only 2 of the 9 HCMV-negative patients were HLA-DR beta positive and none of the non-diabetic controls showed increased levels of MHC class II mRNA. These data suggest that HCMV infection in the pancreas is associated with type 2 diabetes. However, no conclusions as to a role of this virus in the aetiopathology of type 2 diabetes can be drawn at present.
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