IL6 and diabetes mellitus: At the day of diabetes manifestation, immediately before the start of therapy at the time point of the first biopsy, the rats in the therapy groups with anti-TCR in combination with anti-IL-6 and with anti-IL-17 as well as with both anti-cytokine antibodies showed significant 6–9-fold increases of the proliferation rates analysed by Ki67 staining compared to normoglycaemic controls (Fig. 3a).