Fig. 3

Pancreatic draining lymph nodes (PLNs) orchestrate and perpetuate the vicious cycle of islet-specific autoimmune reaction. Effector T cells (Teff) are efficient in β cell killing and are organized into specialized tertiary lymphoid organs (TLOs) with chronic T1D progression. Autoantibodies (Igs) produced by plasmocytes act as the early immune biomarker of T1D initiation and the autoantigens generated from dead islet β cells are presented by antigen presenting cells (APCs) to prime autoreactive T cells in PLNs. A minor population of autoreactive T cells are present in the form of stem like memory T cells (Tmem) to continuously fuel anti-islet immunity, considering that Teff have a short lifespan and would not persist once arriving at the islet niche