Later on, such theory has been widely controverted by different studies that reported the absence of both selective expression and immunopathogenic significance of HERV-K18 Env in type 1 diabetes (Badenhoop et al., 1999; Jaeckel et al., 1999; Kim et al., 1999; Muir et al., 1999; Herve et al., 2002) as well as the lack of any superAg activity (Lapatschek et al., 2000). This evidence concerns the gene KRT18 and type 1 diabetes mellitus.