Functional and morphological beta cell plasticity after arrest of autoimmune diabetes

Background: It is under debate whether beta cells have the capacity to regenerate after a potential arrest of the immune attack in type 1 diabetes. To address this question we visualized islet biology longitudinally in vivo at cellular resolution during and after autoimmune diabetes. Methods: We combined a mouse model of induced autoimmune diabetes expressing influenza hemagglutinin protein (HA) under the control of the rat insulin promoter (RIP), with the beta cell reporter MIP-GFP mouse and islets transplanted to the anterior chamber of the mouse eye for noninvasive in vivo imaging. Results: Adoptive transfer…