Infection with the Lyme disease pathogen suppresses innate immunity in mice with diet-induced obesity.

ABSTRACT: Obesity is a major global public health concern. Immune responses implicated in obesity also control certain infections. We investigated the effects of high-fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) on infection with the Lyme disease bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi in mice. DIO was associated with systemic suppression of neutrophil- and macrophage-based innate immune responses. These included bacterial uptake and cytokine production, and systemic, progressive impairment of bacterial clearance, and increased carditis severity. B. burgdorferi-infected mice fed normal diet also gained weight at the same rate as uninfected mice fed high-fat diet, toll-like receptor 4 deficiency rescued bacterial clearance defects, which greater in female than male mice, and killing of an unrelated bacterium (Escherichia c

SUBMITTER: Zlotnikov N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5383418 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature