Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, characterised by immune infiltration into the islets of Langerhans, resulting in the destruction of insulin producing b-cells. Over recent years, evidence has been collected on the important role of chemokines in the recruitment of immune cells leading to the pathology of this disease. In this review we discuss the findings on the role of chemokines, as obtained from animal studies. We will focus on the quantification of chemokines and chemokine receptors, making use of the innovative real-time quantitative PCR technique.