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

Author:

Zlotnikov, N, Javid, A, Mijhgan, A, Eshghi, A, Tang, TT, Arya, A, Bansal, AK, Matar, F, Parikh, M, Ebady, R, Koh, A, and Gupta, N

Publication type:

Journal Article

Publication date:

2016-11

Journal/Series title:

Cellular microbiology

URL:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cmi.12689/full

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. Importantly, innate immune suppression increased with infection duration and depended on cooperative and synergistic interactions between DIO and B. burgdorferi infection. Thus, obesity and B. burgdorferi infection cooperatively and progressively suppressed innate immunity in mice.