In vitro culture of rat islets at 24 degrees C for 7 days in tissue culture medium CMRL 1066 almost completely eliminated lymphoid cells from the islets. Immunostaining of the islets with monoclonal antibody OX4 for demonstration of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-expressing cells revealed a decrease from 13.1+/-0.6 positive cells per islet on day 0 to 0.7+/-0.1 cells per islet on day 7. A comparable decrease was found using OX1 for demonstration of all leukocytes. In contrast, culture of rat islets at 24 degrees C for 7 days with tissue culture Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 medium was not as effective in eliminating lymphoid cells as in medium CMRL 1066 (3.0+/-0.2 class II MHC positive cells per islet at 7 days). Effective elimination of intraislet lymphoid cells apparently is due to the combined effect of low temperature culture and the tissue culture medium CMRL-1066. The second goal of the study was to determine whether the destructive effect of interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) on rat islets in culture was due to intraislet lymphoid cells. In vitro culture of rat islets with IFN-gamma (1000 units/ml) at 37 degrees C caused almost complete destruction of the islets at 7 days. If intraislet lymphoid cells were eliminated from the islets by in vitro culture at 24 degrees C followed by exposure to IFN-gamma (1000 units/ml) for 7 days at 37 degrees C, then IFN-gamma did not cause destruction of the islets and transplants of the treated islets produced normoglycemia in diabetic recipient mice. These findings indicate that intraislet lymphoid cells are responsible for destruction of islet cells when these cells (presumably macrophages) are activated by IFN-gamma. Intraislet lymphoid cells may play a significant role in destroying islet cells in autoimmune diabetes.