The Causes of Type 1 Diabetes

Here at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation/Wellcome Trust Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (JDRF/WT DIL) based in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, on the Addenbrooke’s Hospital site, we are running a research programme to investigate the causes of type 1 diabetes.

The principal objectives of our research are to identify the genes involved in type 1 diabetes, determine the function of these genes and to understand the disease pathways that are influenced by these genes. This is done by carrying out immunological analyses on fresh blood samples from both diabetic patients and their relatives and healthy volunteers. We hope that by gaining more information about the genes involved in type 1 diabetes and by understanding the differences in their function, we can help the future design of rational therapeutic strategies to attempt to prevent the underlying biochemical defects characteristic of type 1 diabetes and of other autoimmune diseases that run in the same families as those with type 1 diabetes. We hope results of our research will help the identification of individuals at risk of developing the disease and ultimately lead to preventative treatment in these at risk individuals.

We know that most cases of inherited insulin dependent, type 1 diabetes, are caused by autoimmune irreversible destruction of the insulin producing islets of the pancreas. We do not know however, why and how some individuals develop the disease. Genetic studies, performed by our group to date, have shown that there are at least eleven genes involved in susceptibility to type 1 diabetes, seven identified in the last year and all of which are involved in the development and activity of the immune system. By finding out more about these genes we can try and understand why the disease develops and discover what is wrong with the immune system. This basic understanding will allow us hopefully in the future to develop ways of modifying the immune system to prevent diabetes.

By taking blood samples from diabetic patients and their relatives and healthy volunteers, up to four times per year, we can investigate the influence of these autoimmune susceptibility genes in the setting and shaping of immune cell populations, whilst continuing our search for novel genes involved in susceptibility to the disease.

The study is jointly funded by the JDRF and the WT.