Indeed, it is well-established that the major genetic determinants of type 1 diabetes risk are polymorphisms of class II HLA genes encoding DQ and DR (30), thus indicating a leading contribution of the interactions between CD4 T cells and antigen presenting cells; our results suggest that the phenotypic and functional characterization of N CD4 T cells would allow the identification of candidate subsets with potential pathogenicity in the context of human type 1 diabetes. The gene discussed is CD4; the disease is type 1 diabetes mellitus.