Environmental Factors Causing Type 1 Diabetes

Health Care Guide / Presentation on External Environmental Factors Affecting / Influencing Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus in word / .doc / .ppt format

Environmental Factors:

There is evidence that environmental factors, especially infections, are involved in triggering autoimmunity in type 1diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Epidemiologic studies suggest a role of viruses. Seasonal trends that often correspond to the prevalence of common viral infections have long been noted in the diagnosis of new cases, as the association between coxsackie viruses of group B and pancreatic diseases, including diabetes. Other implicated viral infections include mumps, measles, cytomegalovirus, rubella and infectious mononucleosis. In all these cases, the viruses are not thought to cause diabetes by directly damaging b- cells.

Two mechanisms, which are not mutually exclusive, have been proposed to explain how infections can trigger autoimmunity. One is that the infection induced tissue damage and inflammation, leading to the release of b- cell antigens and the recruitment and activation of lymphocytes ad other inflammatory leukocytes in the tissue. The other possibility is that the viruses produce proteins that mimic self antigens and the immune response to the viral protein cross reacts with the self tissue.

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