Prevention of autoimmune but not allogeneic destruction of grafted islets by different therapeutic strategies

Grafting autoimmune-diabetic recipients with allogeneic islets, graft rejection and disease recurrence as major problems of reaching indefinite survival and tolerance induction have to be solved. Anti-CD25 and anti-CD4 monoclonal antibodies were successfully used after allogeneic islet transplantation in experimentally diabetic rats. A temporary anti-CD25 therapy also prevented disease recurrence in autoimmune-diabetic BB rats, while this was not yet reported for an anti-CD4 treatment. In autoimmune-diabetic NOD mice disease recurrence can be successfully treated using an anti-CD4 monoclonal antibody. We, therefore, compared the efficacy of a short-term anti-CD25 and anti-CD4 treatment regarding the prevention of allograft rejection and disease recurrence in autoimmune-diabetic BB/OK rats. Both monoclonal antibodies were combined with low doses of Cyclosporin A. Untreated BB/OK rats relapsed into hyperglycaemia within 3 weeks independent of the islet donor, LEW.1A, LEW.1BB/OK or BB/OK rats. However, after grafting MHC-identical allogeneic (LEW.1BB/OK) or syngeneic (BB/OK) islets we observed about 30% spontaneous acceptance. Both the anti-CD25 and anti-CD4 therapy significantly prolonged the survival of allogeneic grafted islets. After MHC-identical allogeneic and syngeneic islet transplantation the temporary immunotherapy increased the proportion of permanent acceptors to 63% and 75%, respectively. The efficacy of both treatment strategies in prolonging allograft survival and prevention of disease recurrence was identical. In summary, anti-CD25 as well as anti-CD4 therapy prevented autoimmune but not allogeneic islet destruction in autoimmune-diabetic BB/OK rats. In conclusion, targeting different immune cells by monoclonal antibodies with different specificities can lead to very similar results with respect to an interruption of allograft rejection and autoimmune reaction.