Inflammatory profile of NOD.Batf3-/- islets. Mus musculus

NOD mice deficient in the transcription factor Batf3 never develop diabetes. The goal of this study was to determine if NOD.Batf3-/- mice islets had any inflammatory signature associated with type 1 diabetes. Islets of Langerhans were isolated from NOD, NOD.Batf3-/-, and NOD.Rag1-/- and then compared to determine inflammatory gene profiles. At 6 and 8 weeks of age, NOD.Batf3-/- islets had an absence of inflammatory gene expression and were almost identical to uninflamed NOD.Rag1-/- islets. This work shows that absence of the Batf3 transcription factor is sufficient to prevent all the inflammatory sequelae of autoimmune diabetes. Overall design: RNA was isolated from the pancreatic islets of Langerhans of 27 experimental mice. Mice were aged either 6 or 8 weeks. Three genotypes were tested: NOD, NOD.Rag1-/-, and NOD.Batf3-/-. There were 3-6 biological replicates per condition. All mice were female. All data was normalized using RMA in Arraystar.