Figure 5. Ifih1^R variant mice exhibit enhanced triggering of autoimmune disease.

(a-b) Mice were injected with daily with streptozocin (STZ; 40 mg/kg) for 5 days. (a) Representative data from one out of two experiments. Average blood glucose level displayed with error bars representing ± SEM. Day 0 represents start of glucose monitoring. Red arrows indicate STZ injection. (b) Combined data from two experiments with indicated total numbers of animals/genotype. Animals with glucose levels above 250 mg/dl for two consecutive measurements or in 3 of 5 measurements were considered diabetic. (c-d) Ifih1^R/R mice were crossed with Ptpn22^R mice to generate single or compound heterozygous Ifih1^NR/RPtpn22^NR/R mice. Mice were injected with STZ (55 mg/kg) for 4 days. (c) Representative data from one experiment. (d) Combined data from two experiments with indicated total numbers of animals/genotype. Disease was determined as in (a). (e-f) 4.7×10⁶ BM12 CD4⁺ T cells were adoptively transferred into mice of indicated genotypes by retro-orbital injection. ELISAs were performed on serum collected at the indicated times for (e) IgG anti-dsDNA and (f) IgG2c anti-dsDNA autoantibodies showing representative data from one of two experiments. Graphs display optical density (OD) at 450 nm that is normalized to a blank well. Each data point represents an individual mouse. Error bars represent ± SEM. Statistical significance was assessed by Mantel-Cox test (b) or one-way ANOVA (e-f). *p<0.05, **p<0.01.