Figure 1.

(a) The BDC-2·5 clone cannot cause diabetes in adult non-obese diabetic (NOD) scid recipients in the absence of CD8⁺ T cells. The BDC-2·5 T cell clone was transferred to 8-week-old male NOD scid recipients, either alone or with cells from a diabetic donor: CD8⁺ T cells (CD4 depleted) or CD4⁺ T cells (CD8 depleted). Control mice received spleen cells, CD4⁺ T cells or CD8⁺ T cells all from diabetic donors. This result was reproduced several times in two different laboratories.(b) The BDC-2·5 clone initiates diabetes in neonatal NOD mice in the absence of CD8⁺ T cells. BDC-2·5 cells (1 × 10⁷) were transferred into 7-day-old NOD recipients, some of which received the clone alone (n = 14) and others (n = 15) were treated with depleting anti-CD8 antibodies. Analysis of spleens and lymph nodes of the treated mice showed an absence of CD8⁺ T cells (data not shown).(c) The BDC-2·5 clone initiates diabetes in neonatal NOD.scid mice. BDC-2·5 clone cells (1 × 10⁷) were injected intraperitoneally into neonatal NOD scid recipients (n = 8).