Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have made a breakthrough in the fight against diabetes, by examining the immune cells long thought to be responsible for type 1 diabetes, in diabetic mice.

While examining the immune cells from isolated insulin-making structures in the pancreas known as the islets of Langerhans, they successfully caught the immune cells, known as dendritic cells, "red-handed" carrying insulin and fragments of insulin-producing cells known as beta cells.

This can be considered as the first step toward starting a misdirected immune system attack that destroys the beta cells, preventing the body from making insulin and causing type 1 diabetes.

The results have may help scientists in finding ways to treat type 1 diabetes, which is also called juvenile diabetes because it frequently develops in children.

"Now that we've isolated dendritic cells from the pancreas, we can look at why they get into the pancreas and determine which of the materials that they pick up are most critical to causing this form of diabetes. That may allow us to find ways to inhibit dendritic cell function in order to block the disorder," said senior author Emil R. Unanue, M.D., the Paul and Ellen Lacy Professor of Pathology.

Usually, patients need insulin injections to survive because the immune system has destroyed the islets of Langerhans, which contain the body's only beta cells. The insulin these cells make is required for the critical task of regulating blood sugar levels.