The progressive increase in the incidence of both type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and T2DM, which is associated with changing environmental conditions, highlights overlapping clinical and pathogenetic features of these diabetes stereotypes. The article proposes that the common thread is a proinflammatory environment that activates innate immunological and inflammatory pathways, which lead to β-cell dysfunction in T2DM, insulin resistance in both T1DM and T2DM, and enhanced adaptive immunity that kills β cells in T1DM.
- John M. Wentworth
- Spiros Fourlanos
- Leonard C. Harrison