RNA-seq study of longitudinal blood cell samples from children at risk of type 1 diabetes

The appearance of type 1 diabetes (T1D)-associated autoantibodies is the first and only measurable parameter to predict progression toward T1D in genetically susceptible individuals. However, autoantibodies indicate an active autoimmune reaction, wherein the immune tolerance is already broken. Therefore, there is a clear and urgent need for new biomarkers that predict the onset of the autoimmune reaction preceding auto-antibody positivity or reflect progressive b-cell destruction. Here we report the mRNA sequencing–based analysis of 306 samples including fractionated samples of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells as well as CD4, CD8 cell fractions and unfractionated PBMC samples longitudinally collected from seven children who developed beta-cell autoimmunity (Case subjects) at a young age and matched control subjects.EGA study EGAS00001004071