Figure 4: Dramatic reduction in size of the spleen with new onset type 1 diabetes in an NOD mouse. Left spleen is from a B6 control mouse, the middle spleen is from a non-diabetic NOD litter mate to the diabetic mouse (right spleen). The B6 spleen weight was 81.4 mgs, the non-diabetic NOD spleen was 89.1mgs and the diabetic NOD mouse spleen was 38.2 mgs. The normal female B6 spleen at 15-20 weeks of age weights 83.4 +/- 2.9 (n=32). A shrunken NOD spleen with diabetes is uniformly observed with hyperglycemia in NOD mice (n=20 mice). The NOD spleen from female mice that do not express diabetes are consistently of a normal size (n=17 mice). |