Fig 2: Pancreatic AIP‐score of MRL/MpJ mice treated with regulatory T cells. CD4+ CD25+ T regs were isolated from adult female MRL/MpJ mice (27 ± 0.1 weeks old) and expanded for 2 weeks. Afterwards 2.5 × 106 cells were transferred into female MRL/MpJ mice at an advanced age of 30 ± 0.2 weeks, where spontaneous AIP occurs at a high frequency.12 Age‐matched control mice did not receive cells. Six weeks after the injection, pancreatic tissue was CD3 and H&E stained and scored in a semi‐quantitative manner (scores from 0 to 4). Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 8‐10 per group). There was no significant difference between the two groups

Fig 3: Immunohistochemical staining of pancreatic tissue from MRL/MpJ recipient mice treated with different splenic cell populations. Young MRL/MpJ were injected with different splenic cell populations obtained from adult donor animals. Immunohistochemistry was performed on 6 μm thick pancreatic sections of recipient mice 6 weeks after cell injection. Exemplary pictures are shown for animals with spontaneous AIP (A) or animals treated with unpurified splenocytes (B), CD3+ T cells (C), CD4+ Thelper‐cells (D) or CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (E). CD3, CD4 and CD8 were stained in serial sections to evaluate the composition of the autoimmune infiltrates

Fig 4: Pancreatic AIP‐scores of MRL/MpJ recipient mice. Splenocytes were obtained from adult (sick) and young (healthy) female MRL/MpJ donor animals as indicated, and subpopulations (CD3+, CD4+ or CD8+ T cells) were isolated 3 days later. Either unpurified splenocytes or the indicated subpopulations were transferred into young recipient mice. Age‐matched MRL/MpJ mice without cell transfer served as controls (darker bar). Six weeks after cell injection, the mice were sacrificed, the pancreata were CD3 and H&E stained and subjected to semi‐quantitative evaluation (scores from 0 to 4). Data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 6‐10 per group; Table 1), *P < .05 vs untreated controls