Possible role of gangliosides in salivary gland complications of diabetes

Abstract

Gangliosides have previously been considered to be possible antigenic sites in Type 1 diabetes. Lymphocytic infiltration of Langerhans islands is the pathologic hallmark of autoimmune diabetes and may also be observed in salivary glands in experimental diabetes. Diabetic complications of parotid and submaxillary glands may therefore be related with an autoimmune process against sialoglycoconjugates of salivary gland tissue. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.