ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to give a complete account of published immunomodulatory intervention trials in onset insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Of the many different approaches tried three will be described in detail: thymus hormones and thy-momimetic drugs, inhibitors of free radical formation or action, and ciamexone. Evidence of an immunoregulatory imbalance is the impaired interleukin 2 secretion by mitogen-stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes in recent onset Type I diabetes, as well as in other autoimmune diseases. Based on the protective effect of nicotinamide in streptozotocin-induced diabetes the drug was also tried in the spontaneously diabetic nonobese diabetic mouse. Daily treatment of BB rats with ciamexone starting at 42 d of age caused significant delay and partial suppression of diabetes development, which was most pronounced in females. “Mild” immunomodulatory drags may turn out of value as an adjunct to conventional immunosuppression or as a way to prolong the effect of prior immunosuppression.
