Research Associates:
Ken Coppieters - Research Scientist
Aims: To visualize the immune attack that is responsible for the death of insulin-producing beta cells in type 1 diabetes. We are involved in a unique, nationwide project (nPOD or the network for Pancreatic Organ Donors) that aims to improve our understanding of type 1 diabetes by the procurement and distribution of human pancreas tissue from deceased patients. We apply advanced microscopy techniques to these samples to study ongoing aberrations of the immune system. We also take these types of investigations to a new level in animal models of the disease, where we observe islet destruction by the immune system by video (‘two-photon') microscopy.
Click link to watch published video:
http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchSingleRepresentation.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0015732.s003
Outcomes: Our studies so far have yielded important insights in several aspects of type 1 diabetes progression in patients with longstanding disease. We find that whereas many diagnosed individuals maintain a portion of their insulin production, the beta cells remain subject to various abnormalities and, consequently, attack by the immune system. Video microscopy in animal models demonstrates how cells from the immune system migrate to the pancreatic islets and lead to their demise.
Future directions: The nPOD project is expected to yield an unprecedented view on the pathology in type 1 diabetes patients. Our future goals include a systematic search for traces of viral infection in these samples and an attempt to define the molecules that are targeted by islet-infiltrating immune cells.
Image caption: a pancreatic islet from a 12 year-old boy that was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 1 year ago. The beta cells can be seen in yellowish/green. Although these beta cells can still produce some insulin, they are in a state of cellular ‘stress' and express large amounts of MHC class I. The latter is a molecule that is thought to ‘tag' the beta cell for future destruction.