The effect of pregnant serum, cord blood serum and hCG on jurkat T-cell IL-2 secretion

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) results in autoimmune destruction of insulin producing pancreatic beta cells. Although thought to be terminally differentiated, beta cells may undergo expansion during pregnancy. As pregnancy creates a state of immune tolerance, exploring this finding may offer insights to possible therapies for T1DM. We investigated whether circulating factors in serum from pregnant women could reduce the degree of immune activation of human T cells specific for beta cell antigens by measuring interleukin-2 (IL-2).