The CD4+ regulatory T-cells is decreased in adults with latent autoimmune diabetes

The latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) is a subgroup of type 1 diabetes, which procession of autoimmune destruction of β-cells was slower than classic type 1 diabetes. To investigate the pathogenesis of LADA, we examined the lymphocyte subsets including the CD4+CD25+ T-cells in 60 LADA patients and 30 patients of type 2 diabetes and 30 healthy individuals by FACS. And we compared the expression of FOXP3 mRNA in CD4+ T-cell between 10 patients of LADA and 10 matched healthy individuals by real time PCR. The percent of CD4+CD25+ T-cells were higher (11.89 ± 4.96% versus 8.16 ± 3.65%, P < 0.01), and the percent CD8+ T-cells elevated (24.58 ± 6.80% versus 19.39 ± 7.12, P < 0.01) in LADA patients than healthy individuals. While the expression of FOXP3 mRNA in CD4+ T-cell was markedly decreased in LADA patients (0.52-fold, n = 10, P = 0.004) compared with normal subjects. In addition, the percent of CD8+ T-cells related with GAD-Ab titers in LADA patients (r = 0.292, P = 0.03). Our results showed that there were cellular immune disorder and decreased CD4+ regulatory T-cells in LADA patients. The adoptive transfer regulatory T-cells seem to be a potential therapeutics for LADA.