Lactobacillus Plantarum as Therapy for NK-T Cell Deficiency

The etiology of immune-mediated diabetes mellitus (IMD) remains unclear. However, previous studies indicate that autoimmunity may be a result of dysfunction of natural killer T cells (NK-T cells). Newly diagnoses patients with IMD have been shown in our laboratory to have significantly lower NK-T cells than normal controls. Other studies have shown that oral administration of lactobacillus can boost NK-T cell activity in children with HIV without side effects. Our objective is to evaluate the effect of lactobacillus administration on NK-T cell activity in patients with IMD