Chronic Hyperglycemia Drives Functional Impairment of Lymphocytes in Diabetic INS(C94Y) Transgenic Pigs

People with diabetes mellitus have an increased risk for infections, however, there is still a critical gap in precise knowledge about altered immune mechanisms in this disease. Since diabetic INS(C94Y) transgenic pigs exhibit elevated blood glucose and a stable diabetic phenotype soon after birth, they provide a favorable model to explore functional alterations of immune cells in an early stage of diabetes mellitus in vivo. Hence, we investigated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of these diabetic pigs compared to non-diabetic wild-type littermates. We found a 5-fold decreased proliferative response of T cells in INS(C94Y) tg pigs to polyclonal T cell mitogen phytohemagglutinin (PHA). Using label-free LC-MS/MS, a total of 3,487 proteins were quantified, and distinct changes in protein abundances in CD4(+) T cells of early-stage diabetic pigs were detectable. Additionally, we found significant increases in mitochondrial oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and higher basal glycolytic activity in PBMC of diabetic INS(C94Y) tg pigs, indicating an altered metabolic immune cell phenotype. Thus, our study provides new insights into molecular mechanisms of dysregulated immune cells triggered by permanent hyperglycemia.