Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is assumed to be a T cell–mediated autoimmune disease. To investigate the role of Fas-mediated cytotoxicity in pancreatic β cell destruction, we established nonobese diabetic (NOD)-lymphoproliferation (lpr)/lpr mice lacking Fas. Out of three genotypes, female NOD-+/+ and NOD-+/lpr developed spontaneous diabetes by the age of 10 mo with the incidence of 68 and 62%, respectively. In contrast, NOD-lpr/lpr did not develop diabetes or insulitis. To further explore the role of Fas, adoptive transfer experiments were performed. When splenocytes were transferred from diabetic NOD, male NOD-+/+ and NOD-+/lpr developed diabetes with the incidence of 89 and 83%, respectively, whereas NOD-lpr/lpr did not show glycosuria by 12 wk after transfer. Severe mononuclear cell infiltration was revealed in islets of NOD-+/+ and NOD-+/lpr, whereas islet morphology remained intact in NOD-lpr/lpr. These results suggest that Fas-mediated cytotoxicity is required to initiate β cell autoimmunity in NOD mice. Fas–Fas ligand system might be critical for autoimmune β cell destruction leading to IDDM.

We examined the effect of glucagonlike peptides (GLPs), which are cleaved from preproglucagon in the enteroglucagon cells, on rat endocrine pancreas with the isolated perfused system. GLP-I-(7-36)-amide, a truncated form of full-sequence GLP-I-(1-37), showed a potent inhibitory effect on glucagon secretion. This inhibitory effect of GLP-I-(7-36)-amide was demonstrated at concentrations of 0.25, 2.5, and 25 nM in 11.2 and 2.8 mM glucose. In contrast, insulin release was significantly stimulated by GLP-I-(7-36)-amide at its concentration from 0.025 to 25 nM in a high glucose concentration, whereas in a low glucose concentration, the stimulation was seen only at the highest concentration (25 nM). Neither GLP-I-(1-37) nor GLP-II showed any effect on glucagon and insulin release. Although several gastrointestinal hormones have been nominated as incretins, none of them may suppress the glucagon secretion. A truncated form of GLP-I, GLP-I-(7-36)-amide thus seems to be a unique incretin that exerts glucagonostatic action.

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