The bacteria that inhabit us have emerged as factors linking immunity and metabolism. Changes in our microbiota can modify obesity and the immune underpinnings of metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. Obesity coincides with a low-level systemic inflammation, which also manifests within metabolic tissues such as adipose tissue and liver. This metabolic inflammation can promote insulin resistance and dysglycaemia. However, the obesity and metabolic disease-related immune responses that are compartmentalized in the intestinal environment do not necessarily parallel the inflammatory status of metabolic tissues that control blood glucose. In fact, a permissive immune environment in the gut can exacerbate metabolic tissue inflammation. Unravelling these discordant immune responses in different parts of the body and establishing a connection between nutrients, immunity and the microbiota in the gut is a complex challenge. Recent evidence positions the relationship between host gut barrier function, intestinal T cell responses and specific microbes at the crossroads of obesity and inflammation in metabolic disease. A key problem to be addressed is understanding how metabolite, immune or bacterial signals from the gut are relayed and transferred into systemic or metabolic tissue inflammation that can impair insulin action preceding Type 2 diabetes.
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Review Article|
October 13 2015
Immunometabolism of obesity and diabetes: microbiota link compartmentalized immunity in the gut to metabolic tissue inflammation
Joseph B. McPhee;
Joseph B. McPhee
*Department of Chemistry and Biology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5B 2K3
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Jonathan D. Schertzer
†Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, HSC 4H30D, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4K1
Correspondence: Professor Jonathan Schertzer (email [email protected]).
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
June 16 2015
Revision Received:
August 20 2015
Accepted:
August 25 2015
Online ISSN: 1470-8736
Print ISSN: 0143-5221
© 2015 Authors; published by Portland Press Limited
2015
Clin Sci (Lond) (2015) 129 (12): 1083–1096.
Article history
Received:
June 16 2015
Revision Received:
August 20 2015
Accepted:
August 25 2015
Citation
Joseph B. McPhee, Jonathan D. Schertzer; Immunometabolism of obesity and diabetes: microbiota link compartmentalized immunity in the gut to metabolic tissue inflammation. Clin Sci (Lond) 1 December 2015; 129 (12): 1083–1096. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/CS20150431
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