Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)

In type-1 diabetes (TID), insulin-producing beta cells are mainly destroyed by an autoimmune process and the pancreas is unable to produce insulin. IC2, a unique beta-cell surface specific monoclonal autoantibody that raised from LPS–stimulated spleen cell of a diabetic BB-rat. The IC2 auto antigen (here sulfatide epitope) might involve to inactivate SNARE proteins as well as pathogenesis in TID. This Sulfatide epitope might be located in the pocket of another protein that are anchored with the SNARE protein on the beta cell plasma membrane. We hypothesise that Sulfatide on the pancreatic beta cell plasma-membrane is the target epitope of IC2.