Toxoplasma gondii as a possible pathogen of type-1 diabetes mellitus: evidence from case-control and experimental studies

Engy Victor Nassief Beshay; Samar A El Refai; Mohamed A Helwa; Amany Fawzy
Atia; Marwa Mohammed Dawoud

doi:10.21767/2572-5432-C2-006

Toxoplasma gondii as a possible pathogen of type-1 diabetes mellitus: evidence from case-control and experimental studies

11^th International Conference on Endocrinology and Diabetology
August 09-10, 2018 Madrid, Spain

Engy Victor Nassief Beshay, Samar A El Refai, Mohamed A Helwa, Amany Fawzy Atia and Marwa Mohammed Dawoud

Menoufia University, Egypt

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Mol Endocrinol

DOI: 10.21767/2572-5432-C2-006

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular parasite which can replicate inside any nucleated cells including those of pancreas and induces a T-cell immune response. Type-1 diabetes (T1D) is considered as an autoimmune disease in which T-cell mediated destruction of insulin secreting cells in the pancreas occurs. Thus, theoretically, toxoplasmosis could play a possible role in the development of T1D; therefore, this work was designed. Interestingly, in the case-control study, the seropositivity of anti- Toxoplasma IgG was significantly higher among T1D (86.37%) than T2D (66.67%) and the control group (60%). The experimental study included acute and chronic Me49 T. gondii infected mice groups in addition to a control group. Pathological examination revealed the presence of T. gondii zoites adjacent to the islets of Langerhans of the acutely infected mice. With chronic infection, there was a significant reduction of islets number and sizes in association with grade-1 insulitis. The immunohistochemical study showed significant infiltration of the islets of chronically infected mice by CD8+ and CD45+ immune cells. In contrary to the control group, the islets of the chronic group showed significantly higher expression of the apoptotic marker caspase-3 and a significantly lower expression of the proliferation marker Ki69. Finally, a significant reduction of insulin expression in the islets of chronic infection group was detected in association with a significant increase in serum glucose concentrations; however, the establishment of diabetes did not occur throughout this work. Thus, this study presents an evidence for the probable role of chronic toxoplasmosis in the development of T1D.