Although it has been confirmed that insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is a kind of autoimmune disease, islet cell autoantibodies (ICAs), insulin autoantibodies (IAA) and anti-GAD-glutamic acid decardaxylase antibodies have been found in the sera of patients with IDDM and immunotherapies have been used in some patients with IDDM, yet the manner in which the dysfunctional immunosystem acts on beta cells and causes damage to them remains to be clarified. Recently, possible involvement of the abnormal production of IL-6 in autoimmune symptoms was suggested in patients with cardiac myxomas, Castleman's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. However reports of IL-6 abnormal production in patients with IDDM are rare. In the present study, we examined whether or not an abnormal expression of IL-6 mRNA was present in mononuclear cells (PBMNCs) of the peripheral blood of patients with IDDM. We devised a highly sensitive, specific and semiquantitative protocol, ie, reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). We have used such an assay to measure the relative expression levels of IL-6 mRNA in PBMNCs from 12 early IDDM patients (duration < 6 mon, 8.20 +/- 3.85 yr), 29 newly-diagnosed NIDDM patients (54.85 +/- 9.12 vr), 23 normal children (8.20 +/- 3.26 yr) and 12 normal adults (31.92 +/- 11.22 yr). In this assay significantly high expression levels of IL-6 mRNA were found in PBMNCs from patients with IDDM (P<0.05). The relative levels were 0.91 +/- 0.19; 0.10 +/- 0.06; 0.43 +/- 0.08; 0.10 +/- 0.07, respectively. Our results suggest that higher expression levels of IL-6 MRNA in PBMNCs from patients with IDDM imply that IL-6 may play an important role in the pathogenesis of IDDM.