Type I Interferons as Contextual Regulators of B-Cell Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an immune-mediated disease characterized by progressive autoimmune destruction of pancreatic β cells. Although traditionally viewed as primarily T-cell-driven, B cells play essential roles in disease pathogenesis. In addition to producing islet autoantibodies, B cells contribute to immune activation through antigen presentation and cytokine secretion, thereby shaping autoreactive T-cell responses. The earliest clinical predictor of T1D is the appearance of islet autoantibodies in the blood, reflecting a breach in B-cell tolerance well before symptomatic disease onset. In individuals at high genetic risk, type I interferon (IFN) signatures are detectable in peripheral blood prior to seroconversion, suggesting that type I IFNs may act as upstream regulators of B-cell tolerance. Peripheral tolerance is enforced through layered checkpoints including transitional selection, maintenance of anergy, germinal center regulation, and regulatory B-cell differentiation. Studies in systemic autoimmunity demonstrate that type I IFN signaling lowers B-cell activation thresholds, enhances BCR and TLR responsiveness, promotes survival of autoreactive transitional clones via BAFF induction, destabilizes anergy, and skews differentiation toward inflammatory phenotypes such as T-bet+ age-associated B cells. Consistent with this model, single-cell transcriptomic and BCR repertoire analyses in T1D reveal clonal expansion and proinflammatory signatures in islet-reactive B cells during the preclinical stage. Together, these findings implicate the IFN-B-cell axis as a potential target for early disease modification.